In October, 2025, my daughter, Elisabeth, who is a Lutheran pastor, was asked to officiate a wedding for a friend located in north central Nebraska—about 700 miles from her home in northern Illinois. I volunteered to go along and help drive. My actual motivation was to photograph the area around Valentine, Nebraska, reputed to be the most scenic part of that vast prairie state.
Well, the rumor is true. The area around the Niobrara River is indeed photogenic. The scenery is understated—not the drama of the Oregon Coast or the many national parks I’ve photographed. In many ways, the prairie is more challenging to photograph. Among the other sights is the blandly-named Smith Falls, which at 63 feet is the highest waterfall in Nebraska. But it has a unique quality of expanding itself as the water cascades down the limestone.
An added bonus: Being so far away from the light pollution of big cities, the trip included a crisp clear night—idea for some Milky Way photography just before the galaxy core drops below the horizon in the norther hemisphere for the winter.
