August 6,
Just a placeholder for now. I rode US 20 across Nebraska today with the land changing from cornfields to cattle country. I was surprised how much the elevation changed. It was around 1500 ft in Iowa and i'm at 3600 ft now. I guess that's the whole "High Plains" thing.
Stopped at the Ashfall Fossil Bed - possibly the most amazing thing I've ever seen. 12,000,000 years ago a fall of ash from a super-volcano settled over Idaho & Nebraska and in this spot it killed dozens of large mammals at a water hole. They were wonderfully preserved and discovered only in 1971. Excavation is ongoing but the site is fabulous. I would never have believed that so many animals could be trapped but they had photos of african water holes from present day that looked convincingly similar. The photo below shows the inside of the "Rhino Barn" and some of the srhino and horse skeletons which are mostly still in place.
http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0200/media/0201_010401.jpg
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