Green Is My Platte Valley

A week ago we traveled to the Platte River and saw this exotic waterway give life and passage among some otherwise open and dry prairies.  We had a nice image of the sandy river banks being well-vegetated, but what is the view like for travelers "sticking to the trail" on modern I-80?

Sorry for the blur.  Blame the windows on the Archway.

Green and deceptive.  This view takes in a western horizon of the straight and level I-80 from atop the Archway Monument at Kearney, Nebraska, which is a bridge that crosses the interstate and has a museum dedicated to the western trails and development of the highways that would run through the valley.  I-80 is the modern version of these routes, and it stays within or at the limits of the upper floodplain of the Platte through most of central and western Nebraska.  Straight on, you can see forests of ashes, willows, cottonwoods, Eastern Redcedars (Juniperus Virginiana) and some oaks.  On the left of the image, you can see the land dip down into the river itself, and the right of the image is vegetated by another stretch of moist soil along a nearby creek.  If one were to look to the north or south of this vantage, however, they would find a lot of open farmland and stretches of prairie beyond the fields.

Still, the half mile on either side of the river is forested these days, and probably was before it was nearly clear cut during the days of the pioneer trails.  The effect is that of one long oasis of woodlands stretching across the Great Plains.