Arriving at Alliance Municipal Airport in Alliance places you among it all, with Sandhills grasslands, pine ridges, and fossil beds an easy drive away. Alliance is a railroad town in the Nebraska panhandle where coal trains roll through all day and the horizon runs flat to the Sandhills. It is plainspoken and welcoming, with a brick downtown, a famous roadside oddity on the edge of town, and a strong ranching culture that shows up at the fairgrounds and the cafe counter.

Standout experiences around Alliance: - Walk among the vintage cars stacked in a circle at Carhenge, a replica of Stonehenge - Learn railroad and homestead history at the Knight Museum and Sandhills Center - Fish, boat, or camp at Box Butte Reservoir north of town - Wander Dobby's Frontier Town, a collection of relocated pioneer buildings - Drive into the Sandhills, the largest grass-stabilized dune field in the western hemisphere - Watch the BNSF rail yard, one of the busiest in the region - Catch rodeo and livestock shows at the Box Butte County Fair in August

Alliance is a handy starting point for the panhandle. Chadron and the Pine Ridge are about an hour north, Scottsbluff and the bluffs of the Oregon Trail are about an hour southwest, and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is an hour west. Fort Robinson State Park, with its cavalry history and bison herd, is about 90 minutes away. Order a Runza, the stuffed bread pocket Nebraskans swear by, and come in fall for crisp air, clear skies, and sandhill cranes passing overhead.