We headed to Ponca State Park on Sunday, just after lunch. With a
drive of just under three hours, we were there in time to set up,
go into town for groceries, and have a leisurely outdoor supper.
The campground was sparsely populated, with sites on each side of
us empty...
https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_103443.jpg
Our site also had the firepit positioned back in a side
clearing away from the rest of the campground. We dragged the
table down by the pit, but passed on a fire the first night...
https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_103731.jpg
The next day it seemed too windy to cycle, so we drove over to the
Three State Lookout point in Ponca SP...
https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_110401.jpg https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_110401.jpg https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_110415.jpg
Panoramic shot...
https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_110443.jpg
The vantage point looks out across South Dakota to the Loess Hills
of Iowa on the far side of the Missouri River valley. I had not
realized that there was a small tongue of SD that extended down
between Nebraska and Iowa along the north side of the river. Who
knew? As I get older, I find history and geography quite
interesting--far from the tedious topics I thought them as a
youngster.
From the lookout point, we hiked down to the river valley through
the Riverside campground, and then along backwater for a couple of
miles...
https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_110443.jpg
On the hike back, there were nice views of the bluffs along the
river on the Nebraska side...
https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_110443.jpg
All told, we hiked a bit over 5 miles--mostly pretty flat, though
there were some steepish sections at the start and end...
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/342749396
From there we drove past some of the places I remembered from
living in S. Sioux City for middle school, ending up at Stone Park
in the bluffs on the Iowa side...
https://panix.com/~theise/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20251013_131010.jpg
Back at the campground we had a nice fire and went to bed
contented. The next day was colder, windier, and mostly rainy.
So we bailed on cycling again and headed to Sioux City--planning
to hike at Stone Park if the rain eased. While we waited, we
spent several hours looking through a great museum on the
Missouri...
https://www.nps.gov/places/sargeant-floyd-museum.htm
"The museum is nestled inside the retired M.V. Sergeant Floyd, a
boat once used by the United States Army Corps of Engineers." It
has an amazing wealth of exhibits, and we left only after becoming
tired of standing. It could easily have kept us engaged for the
day.
The rain hadn't ended, so we stopped in at the Sioux City main
library, found reasonably comfortable chairs, and read for a few
hours. The rain had still not let up, so we gave up on hiking,
found a Mexican restaurant, and had a nice supper before heading
back to camp.
On Wednesday, it was still rainy, so after leisurely drinking our
coffee and having breakfast, we decided to pack up and head for
home a day early.
The campground was very nice. The site we had was electric plus,
so no sewer hookups. That's just fine for several days, and the
dump station on the way out of the park worked just fine.
For those keeping score, my glued up tongue jack shell held
together perfectly, and the jack worked as well as when new.
strong tailwinds and ~10 on the way home--somewhat less strong
headwinds.
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