North Platte, Nebraska.

On our routine trips between Arizona and North Dakota each fall and spring, I often take US Highway 83 through parts of South Dakota and Nebraska, connecting with I-90 and I-80 in transit. At the I-80 end, after a 10-hour drive (with stops) from Fargo, we overnight at North Platte. Along the way, we pass through the Nebraska Sand Hills. 

According to Britannica.com, the Sand Hills were formed some 5000-8000 years ago as sand dunes. Some dunes are 20 miles (32 km) long and as high as 400 feet (120 m.) The sand, (mostly quartz) is now held in place by grass and the range encompasses about a quarter of the state. Cattle (over half a million strong) thrive on this grazing land. You can read more about their development and history here.

About the photo: Though we’d passed through the region before, I hadn’t really noticed the true beauty of the area, but I’d never seen it with a dusting of snow. The snow brought out the shapes of the dunes more vividly and I found a small pull-off of Highway 83 to capture a short section of the dunes with my Samsung S7 cellphone. In most browsers, you can click on the image to enlarge it to get a much more detailed view of these beautiful dunes.

John Steiner