Chelsea B.
Google
Fort Robinson is awesome! We first camped here 2 years ago. I had no idea NE had some of the stuff it did! Originally from MO, now in Omaha for the last 13 years. Western NE is great!
The buttes in Fort Robinson are butte-iful! There are sunflowers everywhere! There are even smaller prickly pear cacti out in the prairie! I was so surprised! It's so different from eastern NE. You would have no idea it's NE if you're not from western NE!
We learned so much from the Trailside Museum in FR. To know that ancient NE was once covered by sea and held plesiosaurs and mosasaurus....🤯
They offer many activities at the Fort.
We did the Jeep tour 2 years ago, and that was fun. You do some hill climbing up into the prairie to catch some beautiful views, including the buffalo and donkeys!
We went to the rodeo a couple of years ago, and that was humorous.
They have a playhouse showing different plays on different days. We saw Clue a couple of years ago and that was fun.
The guided horse trail rides are so worth it! The long ride is far better than the short ride. They take you up into the buttes on the horses and it's a lot of fun. It's peaceful, and the views are great! The steeper hills going up and down are the best part! Don't pass it up!
They offer a few different meals at various sites throughout the Fort. You meet up at a central location, and they shuttle you out to a location for the meal. They have a breakfast, a buffalo stew dinner, and a steak dinner. We didn't do the breakfast one, but did the two dinners. They're worth it! For the steak dinner, you get a hay(less) rack ride out to a spot at the base of the buttes for a steak dinner served cafeteria style with tea, lemonade, or water. Our meal included the ribeye, baked potato, roll with butter, veggies(cowboy corn), and a salad with choice of dressing. There was a vault toilet outhouse on premise.
For the buffalo stew dinner, they take you out on covered, cushioned, trolley-like cars similar to how some zoos have a "train" type thing. This dinner location was up by the old POW area of FR. There was a half circle of picnic tables set up, and also a large covered shelter nearby, and once again, a vault toilet outhouse. This meals was also served cafeteria style and we enjoyed the buffalo stew, cornbread(which I'm not a cornbread fan, but I actually enjoyed this cornbread!), an oreo brownie and your choice of tea, lemonade, or water.
Both meals we attended had plenty of leftovers that we were told to help ourselves to more.
There is a lot of history here regarding the Native Americans that you can learn about. You can visit various memorials in the area and "hear from" (read) testimonies of the natives local to the area and what happened to them. It really hits deep and gives you a look into their lives. Though I'll never fully understand not having lived through it, it's good to learn the history and I highly recommend learning everything you can while out there.
We stayed in the Soldier Creek campground. They had a bathroom/shower house in this campground, along with several vault toilet outhouses sprinkled throughout. They are very well maintained. The showers are coin-operated, and they have a change machine. 1.00 to start for 3 min, 1.50 for 4.5 min, 2.00 for 6 min, and so on. As with most campgrounds, there are bugs that do get in, but as long as the doors are kept shut, it's not bad. With any public shower, I always have shower flip flops. There are 4 showers, each with its own direct door straight from the outside for use first come first serve.
Nearby attractions we recommend:
Smiley canyon
Toadstool park, amazing geological area
Belmont tunnel - the only railway tunnel constructed in NE. (Now abandoned...we saw a few little bats!)
Prairie Agate Rock Shop in Crawford. The people there were friendly, and know their rocks! Beautiful specimens from the local area, and around the world!
Other considerations within 1.5 hours:
Scottsbluff
Chimney Rock
Carhenge
