Valentine National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge (US Fish And Wildlife Service) In The Sandhills Lakes · Valentine, Nebraska

Valentine National Wildlife Refuge covers roughly 70,000 acres of the Nebraska Sandhills south of the town of Valentine, a landscape of grass-covered dunes cut with dozens of shallow lakes, marshes and wet meadows. It was set aside in 1935 as a refuge for migrating and nesting waterfowl and is run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Lakes such as Hackberry, Dewey and Pelican (hedge - check which are open to which uses) hold ducks, grebes, pelicans, herons and, in some years, nesting trumpeter swans, while the surrounding prairie is one of the best places in the state to see greater prairie-chickens and sharp-tailed grouse dancing on their spring leks. Most visitors are birders, anglers after bass, pike and perch, and hunters in season. Entry is free, but there are no services: no fuel, food or shops, weak or no cell signal, and roads of gravel and sand that can trap a car after rain. It is big, quiet and empty, rewarding for people who come prepared and a long, dusty drive for anyone expecting a park with a visitor centre and trails.

Nebraska Highway 16B, Valentine, Nebraska, 69201, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the refuge roads and viewing areas are open daily from roughly sunrise to sunset, with some areas closed seasonally for nesting birds or as sanctuary; the headquarters office keeps weekday business hours, roughly 7:30 or 8 am to 4 or 4:30 pm, and is often closed at weekends and on federal holidays. Fishing and hunting follow their own seasons. Valentine and the refuge are on Central time (check - Cherry County is split). The traps that ruin a day are arriving after the grouse have finished, getting stuck in sand on a side track, running low on fuel with no signal, and driving in before a storm turns the roads to mud. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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