This middle of MURICA state is known for a lot of things.
Probably.
I bet there’s a handful, right?
I’m not sure, but I’d put money on the fact that this one isn’t really putting them on the map.
Carhenge Nebraska.
No, it’s not the name of a town. Alliance is actually the name of the town that Carhenge is in. There’s not much else around there. You probably will never need to go down the road that this is on, so you’ll miss it unless you’ve come across it on some roadside America map, or maybe a blog post like this one.
The drive from Texas up to South Dakota and back was fairly uneventful.
It’s long, so I needed to find little places to stop off and take a break. Get out of the van, and stretch a bit. Wondering what was in this area, I did some research… annnnd didn’t find a whole lot. That’s a bit of a lie. Scott’s Bluff is about an hour south west of there. I wanted to stop there, but it was down-pouring on and off all day, so we opted to skip it this time. I highly recommend checking it out though, if you’ve got time for multiple stops. There’s so much history there.
I also had no idea at the time as I was looking around confused at all the sand I saw poking through… but the Nebraska Sand Hills are there too! Did you know that? I didn’t. It’s the largest sand dunes complex in the Western Hemisphere. It’s full of stable vegetation, so it doesn’t look a whole lot like other ‘dunes’.
Honestly, this entire portion of the state was fairly pretty. I assumed everything would be flat prairie and farmland… but there were peaks and valleys and rock… picture a little bit of monument valley style rock faces, but with lots of green.
The entire western part of the state is filled with buttes and bluffs.
It made for a gorgeous view while driving from one border to the other.
Now for Carhenge.
This little roadside attraction sits along highway 87 in west Nebraska. If you blink, you will miss it.
Carhenge Nebraska Details:
Name: Carhenge
Address: 2151 Co Rd 59, Alliance, NE 69301
Time needed: I would recommend an hour or so.
Admission: Free
Difficulty level: Easy. It’s a quick walk from the parking lot down gravel/dirt paths.
The main thing you need to know about this place you can learn from their website… and I quote:
“Why Carhenge? Creator Jim Reinders responds to that question simply with one of his own: “Why not?”
Yep.
This also won some top 10 award that Trip Advisor puts out every year?
Anyway, Carhenge is open dawn til dusk.
This isn’t just a bunch of cars shoved in the ground… this is an actual replica of Stonehenge. The creator studied Stonehenge while in England, and on the Summer Solstice in 1987, held the Carhenge dedication.
It consists of thirty nine automobiles.
All of them are painted stone gray.
All of them placed perfectly so they have the same proportions as Stonehenge.
Over time, it looks like additional cars and art been added to the land. There are some spectacular pieces of metal art in the form of flowers, a giant fish splashing up out of the “water”, more cars for a 4 seasons display, and more.
There is also a gift shop on site. They sell all sorts of Carhenge Nebraska themed merch.
I wasn’t able to go in and check it out, use the restroom, etc just because our visit through was during the height of the 2020 big C scare and everything looked a bit different while traveling.
If you need it, there were also hotels in the area. Though, I’m assuming you are just passing through and your main goal isn’t spending multiple days at Carhenge Nebraska. (I wouldn’t judge you if you did.)
Our visit was cut a little short, due to trying to outrun a storm. We ended up making it back to the van just as the sky let loose and started downpouring.
The stormy sky in one direction made for a great photo backdrop.
BONUS TIP:
becausefood.
The Nebraska Carhenge stop for me was because it wasn’t very far out of the way when driving back home to Texas after a week in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
One hour north of there is where we stopped to find lunch, in Chadron.
Just Love Cafe.
This is just a little sandwich and coffee shop, connected to a pharmacy gift shop style drugstore. It is a franchise. It doesn’t look like much… but don’t let the exterior fool you.
The food and service here blew my expectations away.
First off, EVERYTHING IS A WAFFLE.
Seriously!! My sandwich came on waffle bread.
It was the perfect amount of food for a light lunch while on the road.
This must be a pretty small town where they know almost everyone. I say this because we were the ONLY people who walked in who weren’t greeted by name. While we were waiting for our food the owner came over to make conversation. He brought out extra sauce for our sandwiches that he recommended, checked on us a few times, and was so nice. (also, a little over the top. By the 4th interruption within 15 minute we were laughing pretty hard because we just wanted to sit and eat).
Those storm clouds unintentionally really pulled the color scheme together!
Have you been here?! Head over to instagram where I hang out the most and let me know what you think of it!
