The parking lot gives away almost nothing. A gravel pull-off, a sign, a gap in the trees, and then your shoes hit wooden planks and the whole thing opens up.
Nearly a mile of boardwalk carries you through one of the largest deciduous forests left in Nebraska, past turtles sunning on logs and hawks circling overhead, before ending at a two-story tower looking out over a marsh. It is free, it is flat, and most people driving the interstate a few minutes away have no idea it exists.
Where the Boardwalk Starts
Camp Gifford Road dead-ends in Bellevue, in Sarpy County, just south of Omaha, and that is where the planks begin. The wetlands section of Fontenelle Forest sits apart from the main Nature Center, close to the Missouri River bottomlands, on ground that floods and drains and floods again.
Wooden walkway lifts you a foot or two above the forest floor, which is the entire trick. Instead of slogging through muck, you glide over it, listening to the hollow knock of your own footsteps…