The Elkhorn Valley trail follows the route of the beautiful Elkhorn River Valley, from its confluence with the Platte River near Omaha, upstream past Fremont, West Point, Norfolk, O’Neill and Bassett to its headwaters near Long Pine, and onward across the Sandhills of eastern Cherry County to Valentine.
The Elkhorn Valley crosses the tallgrass prairies and glaciated uplands of the eastern quarter of Nebraska, through an area of loess hills west of Norfolk were mixed-grass prairies mix with Sandhills grasslands, and finally into pure Sandhills prairies. Some of the most attractive birding sites along this trail are the Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area at the western edge of that Saunders County city, Dead Timber State Recreation Area in northern Dodge County, Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historic Park in Antelope County, and Long Pine State Recreation Area in Brown County.
Paul A. Johnsgard.