The ULTIMATE Nebraska Road Trip! (BEAUTIFUL nature, TANKING, & visiting Omaha + Lincoln)

I would have never thought that this was Nebraska. This is so fun! Hello from Eastern Wyoming! You may be wondering how the heck did you get here? Since the last time you saw us we were in Spokane, Washington but after leaving Spokane we actually drove to Boise, Idaho to meet up with my parents. They flew into Boise and rented an RV and we spent a super fun week road tripping around Idaho, taking them to some of our favorite spots in Boise, going to a hot spring and hiking in the gorgeous Sawtooth Mountains, visiting the Twin Falls area and its canyons, springs, and waterfalls, walking through a cave at Craters of the Moon, exploring Yellowstone, a place that my dad has always wanted to visit, and then finishing at Grand Teton National Park where my parents crushed a super tough hike to the beautiful Delta Lake. We didn't film any videos because we've already filmed almost all these places so we'll link to those below if you haven't seen them. But since leaving my parents we have driven across Wyoming and spent a few days catching up on work so we're ready to tackle one final month on the road as we head back to Texas and we've decided to take a very random route back to Texas so we can hit up three brand new states for us. Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. These tend to be states that are often overlooked and we have so many cool stops planned and cannot wait to show you. And today we are heading to our 41st state, Nebraska. 41st state, woohoo! Over the next five days we're going to be driving all around Nebraska, visiting super cool nature spots, unique attractions, checking out different cities, eating local foods, and so much more. Nebraska may be the corn husker state but if you think Nebraska is just cornfields, we're about to prove you wrong. Holy cow, it is so gorgeous out here. Tonight we're just camping for free at the Scenic Overlook area by Smiley Canyon and we solely came to this area because we just needed a free place to sleep tonight and we had no idea that it was going to be so beautiful. It's just making us even more excited to explore this state and tomorrow morning we're going to hit the road bright and early to head about 30 minutes north of here to our first major stop in Nebraska, Toadstool Geologic Park. Toadstool Geologic Park is home to Badlands which began forming 30 million years ago and its namesake toadstools which are created when wind and water erode a layer of soft claystone faster than the hard sandstone that caps it forming a mushroom-like formation. And to see more of both we're going to hike the easy one mile loop trail here in the park. If you had plopped me in here and asked me where I was I would have never thought that this was Nebraska. This feels just like a mini Badlands National Park and the park actually does have a connection to Badlands National Park. The rocks found here are related to the rocks found there. This place is kind of just like a giant playground. There are trails but there's also areas that you can kind of just wander around and explore. This is so cool. I knew this place would be pretty neat but as we were walking around here I just kept saying out loud to myself over and over this is way cooler than I thought it would be. One thing we battle with on the road is the tough choice of where to go when we visit a place because unfortunately we just do not have enough time to do it all and this panhandle region of Nebraska has so much to do that we could have easily spent all five of our days here in Nebraska in this area alone so we did have to pick and choose a bit and unfortunately we are missing out on some cool spots but last night at the very last minute after seeing how much we loved the area that we slept in we decided to squeeze in an unplanned stop Fort Robinson State Park which is where we're heading next. Fort Robinson State Park is located in Nebraska's Pine Ridge region just down the road from where we slept last night and it is a former U.S. Army base that was used for a variety of purposes for more than 70 years. It costs $12 per vehicle for non-residents to visit and has old buildings and a museum to check out, jeep and horse rides in the summer and trails to hike and our plan is to check out as much as we can for the rest of the day. While you can't go in many of the buildings minus the museum we're doing that thing we do where we creep in all the windows and one really cool thing about this park is that you can actually rent many of the buildings to stay in and the park's said to be one of the best family reunion spots in all the U.S. because of all the lodging and activities but don't worry we're not creeping in the rental windows. Fort Robinson is most notably known as the site of the 1879 Cheyenne outbreak when a group of Cheyenne Indians who were held here at the fort broke out and eluded U.S. soldiers for 12 days until their hiding place was found nearby. 64 Cheyenne and 11 soldiers were killed and more than 70 were recaptured. The number of casualties of the Cheyenne outbreak made this one of the major conflicts of the Indian Wars. Another important event that happened here is that this is where the Oglala Lakota leader Crazy Horse was killed. We've shared a bit about Crazy Horse in our South Dakota videos when we visited the very impressive Crazy Horse memorial so we'll link to that video below but to learn even more about Crazy Horse we highly recommend checking out the podcast History on Fire. As we've been walking around the state park today you may have noticed these striking buttes off in the distance and for the rest of the day we're going to hike to the Lover's Leap Butte. There's several trails you can take to get to it but we're going to take the Wagon Wheel Trail which should be about 3.1 miles and about 800 feet of elevation gain. You may think that Nebraska is all flat but my legs say otherwise right now. We're almost to the top of the Lover's Leap Butte but first we have to scramble up this. Adam and Kona just went. It doesn't seem too bad but there are definitely some bigger steps. We are really digging this scenery. You've got this flat farmland off in the distance and then all of a sudden bam you've got these buttes just jutting out of the ground and then some rolling hills off in the distance as well just covered in pine trees. It's just really unique from anywhere we've ever been. One thing that we noticed when planning this Nebraska road trip is that some of the town city parks have free camping. You can usually stay for a couple nights for free and then after that they have a small fee. So tonight we're heading about an hour and a half south to Baird City Park to camp for the night. All right we made it and it's basically just a parking area but one really nice thing about it is they actually have hookups. They have electric hookups and water hookups. Unfortunately by the time we got here all of those were taken so we kind of had to squeeze in wherever there was space but it's free and it's close to our first stop tomorrow Scott's Bluff National Monument. Scott's Bluff sits 800 feet above the North Platte River and has been an important area for many years starting with the Native Americans who lived and traveled in this area and it also served as an important landmark for travelers who came through this area on their way west on the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails in search of land in the Oregon Territory, religious freedom in the great Salt Lake Valley, and gold in California, and even was on the route of the Pony Express mail service. One of the most popular things to do here in the park is to go to the summit of Scott's Bluff during specific hours you can drive to the top on Summit Road which is actually the oldest concrete road in the state of Nebraska and features the only three auto tunnels in the state or you can hike to the top on the Three Mile Saddle Rock Trail which is what we're gonna do. One thing that's really nice about this trail that it's paved but don't mistake it being paved for it being boring and easy. There is a bit of an incline and it's definitely not boring. We have sweeping views all around us but one thing you'll notice when you're out here are lots of signs warning you about rattlesnakes. We have not seen a rattlesnake, we hope to not see a rattlesnake, but I do kind of like that this trail is paved because I feel like it would be easier to spot a rattlesnake. If you're worried about missing out on the cool tunnels because you're hiking instead of driving, don't worry there's a tunnel on the trail. I just love unique features like this on a hike. It just makes a hike so much more fun. One of the signs up here talks about how 22 million years ago the High Plains was as high as we are now here on the top of Scott's Bluffs. So if you look off in the distance you see all the other bluffs all the ground in between was filled in and it was just a gentle slope instead of these deep carved valleys. Over time the North Platte River has carved out these valleys in this area and other wind and water erosion. It is just pretty wild to think about. This part of Nebraska has been so beautiful. It's totally different than how we envision Nebraska looking for our entire lives and as we've traveled all around the U.S. we're just constantly amazed by how many hidden gems there are that you would never know about unless you got a little bit off the beaten path. About 30 minutes down the road from Scott's Bluff is Chimney Rock and similar to Scott's Bluff this was a major landmark for travelers over the centuries. The Oregon, California, and Mormon trails all pass through this area and this landmark was the most noted landmark in those travelers journals along those routes. Chimney Rock is about 325 feet tall with the spire being 120 feet. When the immigrants were passing through the spire was much taller but over the years it has been eroded from natural weathering and lightning and has lost about 30 feet in the last 150 years. All right now we have an hour drive northeast to the town of Alliance to check out a pretty cool roadside stop. Let's do it. If you've ever wanted to visit Stonehenge but can't make it all the way to England just come to Nebraska and go to Carhenge instead. As the name implies Carhenge is a replica of Stonehenge in England and is made out of 39 gray cars in the same proportions and shapes as Stonehenge. Some of the cars are held upright in pits five feet deep with the trunk end down while the cars across are welded into place. This was the creation of Jim Reinders who wanted to build this in memory of his father who lived on the farm where Carhenge now stands. So in 1987 35 family members got together to build it and now it's a super popular roadside attraction here in Nebraska. This is such a neat roadside stop and it's so impressive to think about how a family just got together and put this together. There's a sign at the front that has a photo of the construction and it says that they got the first 25 cars up during a six-day family reunion. It reminds me so much of Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo except the cars are not graffitied however there are a bunch of other art installations on the property including one car that you actually are allowed to graffiti. If you've been around a while you know I'm a pretty new angler but I think I've got the catch of a lifetime right here. There it is there it is come on buddy. For the rest of the day we're going to be driving east along the Sandhills Scenic Byway. Fun fact Nebraska is actually home to the largest sand dune in the western hemisphere. It covers a quarter of the state or roughly 19,000 square miles. The Sandhills are small rolling hills covered in prairie grass which helps them stay stabilized so they have a much different look than what you normally think of when you think of sand dunes. I think Nebraska wins for the most bugs hitting our windshield in the shortest amount of time. Our windshield right now is a straight-up crime scene. I don't think we've ever had so many bug guts on our windshield before. At times it sounded like it was raining on our windshield but it was actually just bugs constantly hitting the windshield. It looks much better now I can actually see out of the windshield and now it's on to our free campsite for the night. Tonight we're staying at another one of these free city park campgrounds this time in Thedford and tomorrow we are doing a unique Nebraskan activity. Nebraska has over 79,000 miles of rivers with 197 of them designated as wild and scenic which is the nation's strongest form of protection for free-flowing rivers and streams. And today we're going tanking down the Middle Loop River near Mullin, Nebraska. You may be wondering what the heck is tanking? Well it's when you float in a stock tank down a river. We have some friends who told us about tanking a little over a year ago and we've been wanting to do it ever since and today is the day. Bye Chris! Thank you! So we rented our tank from Glidden Canoe Rentals. It was only $25 a person. Seems like such a steal and we parked the van at the end point and then we got driven to the starting point and now we just float and maybe paddle because there's a tree coming our way down the river. We just crashed dead into that tree there that was stuck in the river now we're on the side. Oh no! This is so fun. He told us that you basically can't flip this. It's not gonna sink. They're super durable. Yeah you can stand on the same side. You can stand up. It's not like our inflatable kayak. He said basically this thing will not flip unless you're really trying to flip it. We are going so fast! I'm getting so dizzy. This is the funnest thing I have done in a long time. I'm so sorry. Look what Adam just did to me. He just knocked me into a tree. Are you okay? Oh I'm fine. That was fun. Oh my gosh. It's surprisingly very easy to go down the river but it is hard to get away from trees and to steer yourself in the right direction and things like that happen occasionally. So the Middle Loop River goes right through the sand hills and you can see all the sand on this cliff right behind me. This water is also so beautiful. It's spring-fed so it's really cold and it's nice and clear and underneath you can just see all of the sand from the sand hills. We've made it to the halfway point. This bridge marks it and he said he said the bridge has sunk over the last few years apparently so we're gonna have to really get down and duck. We've got one final obstacle. We've got another bridge. You probably could tell but just in case you couldn't that was an absolute blast. Shout out to Nebraskans for creating such a fun activity but now it is time to try a Nebraska food institution Runza is a fast food chain here in Nebraska with over 70 locations and is known for its Runza sandwich which is a yeast dough bread pocket filled with seasoned ground beef cabbage and onions and minus its shape it's basically the same as a beer rock which is another popular Midwest food item brought to the area in the 1870s by German Russian Mennonite immigrants. We read their cheese Runza is their most popular item so we got one of those. We also got a Philly cheese steak Runza and then we also heard that their onion rings were good as well as their french fries so you know we had to get the whole kitten caboodle. This thing is actually really awesome you can see all that cheese in there there's tons of cheese and the seasoning on the ground beef is really nice and then you get tons of flavor from the onion a little bit of a crunch from the cabbage all wrapped up in this perfect little you know pillow it really is it is pillowy I freaking love this so I'm gonna try the Philly cheese steak one and even though it's been sitting here for a few minutes it's still nice and warm it is hefty this thing is pretty heavy it is a good hunker Runza oh look at that cheese that is way better than I thought it would be it has such good flavor on the inside and then with this one you get really gooey cheese and you also get that nice peppery taste this is awesome we had kind of read mixed things and there's a podcast we love called beach too sandy water too wet where they read negative reviews in a dramatic fashion they did a whole episode on Runza and it was really funny to listen to especially before coming here but after hearing some of the negative reviews I just wasn't sure what to expect one person said it tastes like a burp in a bun which is pretty hilarious but I disagree does not taste like a burp in a bun it tastes like nicely seasoned meat peppers cheese and then the bun itself is real good so this exceeded my expectations that's really good good amount of breading nice onion in there okay the fries are super salty just how I like them and I had heard that the ranch was top notch and I agree as a ranch connoisseur this is very very good ranch I feel like between tanking and Runza this is the ultimate Nebraska day we're back on the road and for the rest of the day we're driving all the way to the east side of the state to Omaha and when we get there we have a bunch of chores to take care of but tomorrow we're gonna go exploring we made it to Omaha and we're starting our morning at Zen Coffee for something pretty unique ingenious a coffee flight if you've been around for a while you've seen us enjoy ice cream flights chips and dip flight but a coffee flight is a brand new concept for us we are all about it so we got a puppy chow latte Belgian waffle latte butterbeer latte and brown sugar pumpkin spice shake and espresso I am most excited for this puppy chow latte because I love puppy chow it comes with a little appetizer on top I'm not really sure how to drink this to avoid spilling puppy chow on myself we'll see how it goes whipped cream on top nice chocolatey flavor oh yeah these are awesome because some of them come with like a little snack and it's kind of like a stroopwafel they put it on top so it kind of warms it up should I dunk oh yeah breakfast and coffee it's pretty genius because the latte is maple flavored so you dip your waffle in your syrup you also get a little one thing we really struggle with at coffee shops is what to order especially if they have a bunch of fun drinks like this place has so it was awesome to get to try a bunch of different things but one very important thing to know about the latte flight is that they recommend you call ahead and reserve a board in advance because they can get really busy especially on the weekends and they can sometimes run out of boards Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska and we've headed downtown to check out a couple cool spots and first up we're at the riverfront this is a brand new area of town that was renovated and reopened this past summer it has tons of cool spaces to hang out including hammocks a really fun looking playground and a bunch of slides and if you watched our Spokane video you know that we do not pass up the chance to slide down three two one go just a couple blocks south of the gene leahy mall is the old market which is a historic area of town that back in the late 1800s was a bustling area with produce dealers buyers and transporters in the late 1900s activity in the area slowed down and it was at risk of being torn down but a local named Sam Mercer whose family owned some of the buildings had the idea to save the buildings by repurposing them for new uses which created the old market that you see today we are about to leave Nebraska but just for a few minutes and head to Iowa Omaha is located right on the Iowa border and you can walk into Iowa via the Bob Carey pedestrian bridge which is a 3,000 foot bridge that goes over the Missouri River this bridge is lovingly referred to as Bob and Bob even has his own Instagram and YouTube channel so let's go hang out with Bob currently standing at the state line of Nebraska and Iowa my right foot is in Nebraska my left foot is in Iowa and we read that if you take a photo here it's called bobbing so let's go bobbing Iowa is one of the states we have yet to visit but we're not going to explore it this time because we have some pretty big plans on how we want to see Iowa someday so we're going to save it for the future but it's just always so cool when you can walk into another state so we could not pass up just dipping our toes in Iowa and now back to Nebraska there's also a fun feature under the bridge a troll named Omar we didn't want him to feel left out so we had to come and say hi and take a photo with him too for our final stop in Omaha we had to try out a local ice cream shop we just came to Coneflower Creamery in the Blackstone District to get us some scoops and we got small on accident who are we what happened I got two fruity flavors I don't normally do that I usually get one chocolatey or caramelly one and a fruity one but I have the tart cherry crumble and Aunt Minnie's lemon bar that tastes like an a la mode cherry pie so much crumb in there of the crumble of the like pie crust kind of thing and then the little tart cherries all speckled through there let's see if Aunt Minnie's up to her stuff on her lemon bar oh yeah whoa that's got some mega lemon flavor and then you can see all the little crumbly crunchy bits of the bar I guess make it a lemon bar that is super high quality so tasty wow what would you like to say to Aunt or Grandma Minnie I already forgot what she is Minnie I dig your lemon bars you know what you're doing and I got their Blackstone Butter Brickle which is a very Nebraska flavor of ice cream Butter Brickle is basically chocolate covered toffee and it was first created in the 1920s and then the Blackstone Hotel here in Omaha is said to have created the first ever Butter Brickle ice cream so I had to try that plus I just love toffee boom it is so crunchy from that Butter Brickle has such a good just buttery sweet flavor I'm gonna petition for us to go buy a pint of this and then this flavor is their coffee ice cream and a guy in line told me it's the best he's ever had so we'll see that is good it basically just tastes like frozen coffee such a good rich coffee flavor guy in line you are not lying oops there is a lot more to do here in Omaha than we had time for today including the zoo which is consistently rated as one of the top five zoos in the world as well as some other museums but we have to head a little bit out of town for the rest of the day for something very very cute there they are tonight we're staying at a harvest host called Stratton Ranch which is an alpaca farm in Gretna Nebraska if you're unfamiliar with harvest host it's a membership program for those with self-contained rvs and vans where you can stay at participating farms wineries breweries golf courses and museums for free with the expectation that you support their business if you'd like to sign up we have a 15% off code that we'll link to in the description and the pinned comment our first ever harvest host experience was actually at an alpaca farm in Montana a few years ago and it was too much fun and we have been dying to stay at another one the alpacas are right here let's go meet them you guys are so cute and i love you one day i'll have one of you the white alpaca was chewing i don't know if he choked or what but he just in my face and in my mouth that was gross buddy she says sorry that was gross see this farm isn't open to the public but if you're a harvest host member you have to come stay here if you're traveling through nebraska they even have a 30 amp hookup to use and they offered us a water fill up if you're not a harvest host member we highly suggest finding an alpaca farm on your travels for ultimate cuteness overload we're gonna enjoy a nice quiet evening with all of our new furry friends and then we're gonna head about an hour southwest to our final destination here in nebraska lincoln good night guys sleep tight they're all just staring at us lincoln is not only the home of the university of nebraska but it's also the capital of the state and right behind me is the state capitol building which fun fact was the first capitol building to incorporate a functioning tower and is known as the tower of the plains the tower is 437 feet tall and what's neat about it is there's an observation deck on the 14th floor so we're gonna head inside and check it out it is so beautiful in here the ceiling is gorgeous there's this crazy chandelier wow this reminds me of a cathedral i feel like we're in some like really fancy church in europe or something not the nebraska state capitol this is a tiny elevator and very very old we have been to a handful of state capitol buildings and the nebraska state capitol is hands down the most gorgeous of them all we are really digging lincoln so far the downtown area just has such a cool vibe and we're currently in an area called the historic hay market which gets its name after the original market square of 1867 which was an open air market for produce and livestock as well as a camping ground for immigrants and a general gathering place in 1874 the city shifted the area a few blocks west and north and renamed it hay market this area is kind of similar to the old market in omaha that we were at the other day it has all these old warehouse buildings that have just been revitalized there's also a lot of really neat art here we're currently walking in this alleyway that just has all these sculptures on the sides of the alley walls it is so neat we might have found new world's most perfect restaurant at least for us we're at a spot called muchachos that combines three of our favorite things tacos coffee and barbecue they call themselves new mexican barbecue fusion and if we lived here we might not ever have to leave only to get ice cream and we're starting with a cinnamon toast crunch cereal milk latte it's just like you took that cereal milk threw some coffee in it and if you can't tell we also got a feast of food we got the brisket nachos we got the hatch chili mac with brisket we got brisket tacos and a pork taco with the works which is slaw two salsas and a crema that has got huge chunks of tender smoky brisket in there the fat is just perfectly rendered and then all the salsas on top this is the pork one and that pork is nice and moist and then i forgot to mention the slaw that's on there too it gives it a nice good crunch i couldn't pass up the chance to get a bunch of melted cheese on some chips with some brisket and there are humongous chunks of brisket on these nachos oh no man down it's so smoky and creamy good flavors from the salsa and like adam said that crunch of the slaw and the crunch of the chips too it's just such a good texture experience last but not least this massive bowl of mac and cheese creamy cheesy and then again huge chunks of that smoky brisket in there oh look how fatty that is yeah buddy this is heaven on earth for our final stop in nebraska we're at the sunken gardens which is a free garden that was created in 1930 on a neighborhood dump site this garden is beautiful on its own but when you think about its history and how it went from being a dump to something so full of life and colorful it just makes it extra special to walk around we've said this many times before but some of our favorite places to explore and film are the less appreciated and underrated places and nebraska is no exception we had an absolute blast here we didn't know much about nebraska before planning this road trip and it far exceeded our expectations it's just proof that everywhere even the places that maybe aren't at the top of your travel bucket list have incredible things to offer but we're now on to another state that may not get as much love as it deserves kansas oh that was insane don't keep that