Historic Sights a plenty and arrival

It's Sunday morning and I make my way north toward Fort Laramie.  I am shocked to see a Wall Drug sign along the highway!  For any of you who do not know ahat Wall Drug is, it's this big store that started out being just a samll drug store that sold some souveniers to the early car travelers and came up with the gimick of giving away FREE ICEWATER!  They still give away free water, but they also sell millions of things and have expanded to include several blocks.  It's located in Wall, South Dakota.  It's the only thing in Wall, South Dakota.

It's a beautiful sunny morning, about 61 degrees, and tiny new horse babies are playing in the fields next to their mommas.  There are flat plateaus and washes, trees and rivers in this area, and even a giant sculpture up on a hill, which I found seems to be fairly common here that someone puts a horse and rider, or a buffalo up on a hill near the highway.  For no apparent reason, just for the interest of the drivers that pass.

I turn East on Route 26, and survey the scenery from a rest stop.  What I see in the distance is Laramie Peak.  This was both a welcome and unwelcome sight to the early travelers.  First, it signaled the end to the hot, dusty, dry travel across the plains, but second, it heralded that the road would get worse, climbing into the mountains.

Laramie Peak in the distance

Along this route were several rest stops for the settlers,including Cold Creek, where rifle pits are still seen today.

Look for the indentations

I wind my way through foothills and land that to this modern day traveler would see like an easy cross, but I turn down a dusty 'alley' as it is called to get to the famous Oregon Trail Tracks in Guernsey.

There is a fairly long stretch here where the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail rumbled over sandstone rocks.  Over the years, the wagon wheels cut ruts into the rocks.  This is totally different than the Santa Fe tracks I had seen outside of Dodge.  Although there are depressions in the earth her like I saw at that locations, these tracks went over rock faces and there are actual wagon wheel track CUT into the stone.  Granted, erosion and wind and rain would have helped to make these impressions more noticeable over time, but these really are impressive!

Had to add a point of reference

This is a very steep grade, don't know if they did this uphill or down!

I loved the way the flowers have grown up through the rock

This is a national treasure, and as such, is a protected area.  As you stand in or near these ruts in the hot summer sun, with the sun reflecting off the white rock, you gain a new appreciation for the settlers who passed this way 150 years ago.  They needed to get a heavy wagon up and down these rocks, and in doing so, carved these tracks.  You walk these ruts and you can easily imagine hundreds of weary settlers with tired oxen straining to surmount another hardship of the trail.  This is your average TV show or movie, this was real life and real life was much harder than anything portrayed on film.

Bumping over this would have been difficult

I estimated this rut at about 3 - 4 feet deep

Right below here is the North Platte River, a river that was overflowing with the spring melt like all of the west was experiencing.  It is not hard to imagine that river being swelled as it was for settlers too.  In fact, even on the good years, the North Platte was not a good river to cross, it was wide, deep and fast, and therefore they traveled this high rocky ridge and made the trail ruts.  You would not want to cross it now with modern equipment, how could they do so with a wagon and animals?

Swollen North Platte River

As I was walking the Trail, I looked down and saw this. What does it look like to you?

Really big animal track?

Just a few miles to the east of here is the famous Register Cliff.  Thousands of travelers camped at the base of this rock ledge in the plain near the river to rest their animals, allow them to graze on green grass, and to replenish game supplies, before they continued to those hills where the ruts are carved and then started towards the mountains.  Here they carved their names, dates, and even home towns in the soft sandstone rock, to mark their passing.  They have found some dates back to the early 1800's, although most date from the Trail era. The oldest names are fenced, which is a great thing, since even today modern day passers by carve their names into these rocks, as did soldiers from the early 1900's.  On the areas that are not preserved, you can do so even today. 

They came from pretty far away, like I have

Monument to the Trail

Just near here was a stop on the Pony Express.  In fact, this place proved so popular, that a trading post sprung up here, as well as ranches to supply goods to the travelers.

In fact, several camps were in this area, also the Warm Spring Camp, which was located next to some warm spring waters that must have been a real joy to the weary travelers in need of a bath and some relief of their exhaustion.  Later on, the Army had a camp in this area also.

Officer's Quarters

Old Bedlam, named that for the ruckus the solders raised

Enlisted men's barracks

This post sits on the windswept plain near a small river, and it is easy to understand how lonely it would be out there.  The lucky enlisted men had wives and were able to live in the married quarters, but it would have been a hard and lonely life even if married.  And, I assume, very hard on the marriage also.

There are some interesting tales and stories from the fort.  One of of a rider who rode from Fort Phil Kearny to Fort Laramie on the 24th and 25th of December, 1866, to get aid for Fort Kearny which was attacked and surrounded by Indians and resulted in the death of Lieutenant Colornel Fetterman and 80 men.  He rode 236 miles in a blizzard and 20 below to get to Fort Laramie.  By the way, the horse was a thoroughbred, and dropped dead when he reach the fort.

Another fact is that Fort Laramie was a stop on the Dakota Black Hills Trail that supplied the gold camps in the Black Hills, in violation of the 1868 treaty with the Indians, which, surprising enough, was signed at Fort Laramie.  Don't you just love the government?

The Fort opened in 1849 and was abandoned in 1890.

Another fort, Fort Platte, which was mostly a trading post was just down the road a few miles from Fort Laramie.  right outside the gates of Fort Laramie was the Rustic Hotel, a huge place that was built to service the gold seekers going to the Dakota's who were greatly helped in that travel by the new bridge that was constructed across the North Platte River. 

Remains of the Rustic Hotel

I met an interesting person, who was a volunteer from who lived in the Casper area who moved up here a few years ago from Denver, who, are you ready, is originally from South Windsor, CT!  She volunteers showing how the women settlers lives were, and explaining about how the wagons were outfitted for the lived of the people traveling.

A settler's wife, from South Windsor, CT!

A soldier in period dress

By the way, Fort Laramie is considered to be one of the most haunted places in Wyoming.  Can't tell by me, but I am told that at dusk all sorts of things happen.  I was not there at that time, but there were also many people around, as this is a stop on the tour bus route, since there was something like 6 of them in the parking lot when I was there.

I headed north west to Casper, where I passed through Douglas and Glendo, and saw the famous Glendo Lake, which is huge and a tourist mecca for boating and fishing. This lake sits in a bowl surrounded by cliffs on almost all sides.  It really is quite interesting.  North of Douglas is loaded with drilling rigs. 

I take a auto tour of Casper, and stop in at the famous Lou Taubert Western store.  9 Floors of clothing, boots, saddles and tack and gifts.  It truly is a great place to shop and you can find just about anything there.  And helpful sales people.

Trails and more trails traveled some of the same places

Thought this was somewhat appropriate

At about 3PM I head north again on the final leg to my summer destination.  I pass through a rain storm at the Johnson County line.  There is lightning flashing down in the far distance, and the South fork of the Powder River has overflowed it's banks.  There are lots of forts in this Kaycee area, the "hole In The Wall" of Butch Cassidy fame is here, and old gold mines and tons of Indian battles.  Just north of buffalo is fort Phil Kearny, and the site of the Fedderman fight.  I join Route 90 here in Buffalo heading North, and begin to travel along the Big Horn Mountains on my left.  Here I see lots of snow on the peaks, and dark from the storm.  I hear on the radio that they are still getting snow in the mountains.

Snow on the Big Horn's - isn't this the quintessential Wyoming photo?

More snow

I hit Sheridan at 5pm and find some guy who looks like a hippie and dressed in a lot of feathers and a knap sack walking along Route 90!

Detail

Statue, Casper

 I take Route 342 west towards Big Horn, and see smaller ranches in the foothills of the mountains.  It is 62 degrees.  I see open cattle gates along the roads and horse grazing in the fields behind them.   I few minutes later, I have reached my destination, the home of the ranch manager, Mike and Sharon Darnell.  I am greeted with a frozen Margarita (yum!) a wonderful pasta meal, great conversation and a comfy bed to lay my head from the long journey.