Platte River Overlook

The Platte River Overlook trail makes a short but steep ascent to the highest point in Platte River State Park, a loess bluff promontory that provides an unobstructed panoramic view across the entire width of the Platte River valley and its braided, sand-laden channel below. The Platte is a river unlike most in North America, famously described as a mile wide and an inch deep, its broad shallow channel spread across hundreds of acres of exposed sandbars and side channels that create the critical roosting habitat for one of the world's most extraordinary wildlife migrations. From the overlook platform at the trail's end, the full scope of this remarkable river system is apparent in a single sweeping view.

During the sandhill crane migration in late February and March, the overlook platform becomes one of the premier wildlife viewing spots in eastern Nebraska, with literally hundreds of thousands of cranes visible simultaneously on the sandbars below and filling the sky with continuous streams of birds arriving from their daytime feeding areas in the surrounding cornfields. The spectacle at dusk, when cranes funnel into the river from all directions in a continuous stream that can last two hours, is one of the most extraordinary natural events anywhere in the Americas. Outside of crane season, the overlook provides excellent views of the river's waterfowl populations, including large flocks of Canada and snow geese in spring and fall, and the cottonwood-lined river channel below the bluff attracts diverse songbirds during migration. The steep trail surface requires careful footing in wet conditions.