We started out this morning from North Platte, NE. (Third day. and we are still in Nebraska!) We were surprised by how slow we were moving but there was a whole lot to see. Here is a sign that let us know we were following the right trail.
The climb up a paved walking trail was incredibly steep, but we made it to the top; Roger easily, Darlene not so easily. Next couple times I got out of the car, I sure was sore, but walking helped.
Looking to the south, we can still see ruts left by the wagons.
That's our car down there. You can kind of see that this was quite a hill to get down.
There is a pioneer homestead memorial at the bottom of Windlass Hill in Ash Hollow.
It took the pioneers about 40 days to get to this point. I guess we shouldn't be suprised we are traveling for a third day. They still have 2/3 of their trip left to go and it isn't going to get easier.
Determined to get out of Nebraska and into Wyoming tonight, we quit stopping at every place of historical interest. We will read about but not stop at gravestones or Pony Express stations.
We could see Courthouse and Jail Rocks from the highway. (This is a picture from the Bridgeport, NE home page. We didn't get a good picture of these landmarks.) We took a wrong turn, but only went about 50 yards before we realized it and turned around.
Another highlight of the day was seeing Chimney Rock. It is a landmark that is often shown with reference to the Oregon Trail travels.
We went to this Historic Site and went through their displays and watched a movie about the pioneers. We went outside to get a better view of Chimney Rock.
Had to watch out for rattlesnakes—didn’t hear or see any—did hear lots of Western Meadowlarks!
Back on the highway we saw many sights around Scotts Bluff Nat’l Monument, then finally drove into Wyoming just before noon, MDT. Sure appreciated gaining an hour with the time change.
Next stop was Fort Laramie, where we started with a picnic lunch. Watched a movie in the center about Fort Laramie, then walked the grounds. Extremely hot out, so as we left we stopped in the ‘soldiers bar’ and had a sarsaparilla that was ice cold. It was really a thirst quencher.
Although we spent a long time here going through all the buildings and walking around the whole reconstructed Fort the only picture I took was of the latrine.
We got back on the highway. Things to see were not very well marked and we wandered around on the highways a bit. Always ended up finding our way.
Next major place we stopped at was the Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site.
Another steep climb for us to see the site, but not as bad as Windlass Hill. The ruts were fascinating.
I chose for us to take the ADA path down. It was longer but made for wheelchair access, and I didn't have any trouble getting to the bottom.
We drove about an hour and a half on Interstate to Casper, WY. There is a new National Historic Trails Center in Casper. We stopped there around 4, but they had already closed for the day. We ate a nice supper and plan to get an early start tomorrow. We’d like to get well into Idaho tomorrow.
