Travel Journal
The second leg of the trip was a little over 300 miles. After leaving the rest area near the Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge, we continued north with the intent of bypassing Kansas City. For the most part we did, though we did detour into some suburb in a vain attempt to find a service station that had diesel fuel. We saw lots of shopping centers and big box stores, but only 3 fueling stations and none of them carried diesel.
Fortunately, when the motorhome fuel meter hits 0 and the “fuel now” light comes on, there is still 5 gallons of fuel left. It was actually intentionally designed that way. We never let it go for very long after that and try not to let the tank get below 1/4th by indicator.
Our route did get away from the freeway and we did have to go through some towns, including Leavenworth, Kansas – we passed right by Fort Leavenworth and the Federal/military penitentiary there.
Our stopping for the next couple of nights was Indian Cave State Park.
Stairs to cave
Petroglyph
Panorama from several photos of cave area
Mud deposited by flood on road.
One room school at St. Deroin town site.
Flooded road at Indian Cave State Park
(click on any photo to view larger image.)
Indian Cave State Park is named for a cave that overlooks the present channel of the Missouri River. Petroglyphs in the cave are evidence that the cave was used by prehistoric native peoples. There is no evidence of any permanent structures. The cave – actually a limestone overhang – was probably used primarily as a temporary shelter for nomadic hunters.
There are 15 or more petroglyphs scattered among the more recent modern graffiti in the cave. They were created by nomadic tribesmen 1500 to 1800 years ago. Many of them are of American bison (buffalo).
Stairs and decking with railings help to limit modern wear and tear on the cave.
While visitors are not supposed to go beyond these barriers, it didn’t surprise us to see a father setting a fine example for his kids by climbing over a railing and climbing up the side of a hill past a sign stating that climbing up the hill is prohibited. (I’m not going to rant on that pet peeve.)
If we had gotten to the park a few days earlier, we would not have been able to visit the cave. When Louis and Clark went up the Missouri in the early 1800s, the channel was a mile and half from the cave. Today, however, the river is just below the cave, with a road running along the bank. The river had been over the road the week before, but river level had been dropping for several days. The mud left by the flood was several inches deep over the road, but had been “plowed” to the sides before we got there.
The river was still above flood stage, though.
We had planned to spend most of the 4th of July in the park, including doing some hiking. Unfortunately, it looked like the weather forecast was going to right on target for a change and it was going to rain.
Before the rain started, we were able to get in a short walk and visit the site where a small river side settlement had once existed.
Shortly after that, the rain started. It was heavy over a wide area. Holiday festivities were canceled or limited over a wide area – we went to Lincoln to see a movie.
The rain was enough that the flooded Missouri – which had been dropping – started rising to a new flood crest.
(Each travel journal post is published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About .)
Click for Exit78 Pinterest policy.
{ 4 comments }
Do you have any more photos of those petroglyphs? I love that stuff . And the father climbing over the barrier — why are people so damn stupid? Most of the time those restrictions are there for people’ s own safety. Then they end up getting injured or worse and it takes a rescue team half the day to extricate them and costs everybody a lot of money and then the park gets in trouble and has to build a concrete wall and post guards to keep people out, etc., etc.
Hi Mike
Wow, what a road trip! The photos are all so awesome!
And very smart of you to not let the fuel go too low. I think that is a good practice even with a car, especially on road trips, because one never knows whether there may be traffic or lack of a station, etc… Accountability leads to good results
Add more petroglyph photos. Some good rock art photos can be found at http://www.petroglyphs.us, but they have none from Nebraska.
XUP – I’ve done another post with the rest of the pictures of the petroglyphs. See Indian Cave Petroglyphs
It’s a shame that people have to behave like that. Fortunately, in many places in the US, parks don’t get in trouble when people hurt themselves as long as there are plenty of warnings. People have tried to sue the National Park Service in the US in the past for not enough barriers and/or warnings. Their response has been, basically, “This is a wild place that can be dangerous if you do stupid things. Doing stupid things can get you hurt.” Fortunately, the courts have backed the park service. There are plenty of warning signs and warnings in brochures. One of the stupid things people do, though, is not read the signs and brochures.
Evita – Thanks! We used to live out in Idaho where our town was the largest town for 75 miles in any direction. The population was about 1400. We learned then the value of making sure we had enough fuel — though my tolerance for approaching empty is much higher than Karen’s. The last time I ran out of gas was in 1973 in California. The last time I had a flat when the spare tire was already flat was in 1973 in Idaho. I was 21.
Don, thanks for commenting. I’ve added a new post — Indian Cave Petroglyphs — that has the rest of the petroglyph pictures from Indian Cave as well as links to all of the rest of the petroglyph images I have online.
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 2 trackbacks }