Fun For Everyone

Whether you’re looking for a quiet fishing hole, a hiking trail, or a scenic spot to enjoy a family picnic, chances are you can find what you’re looking for in the Elkhorn River Valley, including that prime hunting spot for deer, turkey or pheasant. The communities of the Elkhorn Valley offer a wide variety of recreation programs for kids and adults, from soccer and baseball programs to sand volleyball and seasonal golf leagues. Summer events include community festivals, rodeos, July 4th celebrations and county fairs. There is always fun for everyone! The Cowboy Recreation and Nature Trail is the nation’s longest rails to trails project. Beginning at TaHaZouka Park in Norfolk, it will stretch 321 miles across north central Nebraska. Sixty-one miles are now complete and offer a great hiking or biking experience.

Water sports can be enjoyed at many locations throughout the four-county area. Willow Creek Recreation Area, located near Pierce, offers 1,600 acres reserved for camping, boating, swimming and horseback riding. Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River just an hour north of Norfolk provides a wide variety of summer activities for the whole family.

Hunting is popular in the Elkhorn Valley and game is abundant from deer and turkey to pheasant and prairie chicken. Many land owners allow hunting (with their permission of course), or you can book a hunt on one of the many private preserves in the region.

Golf courses are plentiful; there are more than 40 within an hour’s drive. Well-manicured and challenging courses, both public and private, offer men’s and women’s leagues and tournaments.

The YMCA in Norfolk offers full, year-round programs for youth and adults. The Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park, located north of U.S. Highway 20 in Antelope County, is an intact fossil site. Barrel-bodied rhinos, three-toed horses, llama-like camels and saber-toothed deer were entombed by a Pompeii-like event 12,000 years ago. The dig is a cooperative project of the University of Nebraska State Museum and the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission. The site is open to the public from May 1 through the second week in October.