Chimney Rock National Historic Site

National Historic Site (NPS Affiliated Area, Operated By History Nebraska) · Bayard, Nebraska

Chimney Rock is a slender spire of clay, volcanic ash and sandstone rising roughly 300 feet above the North Platte River valley south of Bayard in the Nebraska Panhandle. For emigrants on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails in the 1840s to 1860s it was the landmark mentioned more than any other in their diaries: visible for days as they approached across the plains, it told them they had crossed the flat prairie and the mountains lay ahead. Named a National Historic Site in 1956, it is an affiliated area of the National Park Service but is owned and run by History Nebraska, the state historical society, which operates a visitor centre with a small museum, a film and a gift shop for a modest fee. The spire appears on Nebraska's state quarter. Know the limits before you come: there is no trail to the rock and climbing it is forbidden; the visitor centre stands about 1.5 miles away and the view across the grassland is the visit. Allow an hour, on Mountain time, and pair it with Scotts Bluff and Courthouse and Jail Rocks along the same stretch of trail.

9822 County Road 75, Bayard, Nebraska, 69334, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the visitor centre opens daily in the summer season, roughly 9 am to 5 pm, and keeps shorter hours or fewer days from autumn to spring, with closures on some holidays. The spire can be seen from public roads at any hour for free. All times are Mountain time, an hour behind eastern Nebraska. The traps are arriving expecting a trail to the rock, reading the hours on Central time, finding the doors shut on a winter weekday, and coming at midday for photographs. Confirm current times with History Nebraska before relying on them.

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