Saturday, May 26, 2012

On we go to the Oregon wagon ruts

As you can see Spring  is handling this trip just fine.  They sleep I drive.


Bear is on his pillow snoozing away too. No Stress here.



We arrived in the Ft. Laramie area. It was hot and dry, very dry.  Note the statement about the fact as you go up the temperature declines and the precipitations increases.


A beautiful drive into the Ft. Laramie area.



Sign for the areas we will visit. The little town here is known as Guernsey. Could that be named after the Guernsey cow? 


The pioneers did not have an easy trip. The rocks, the rivers, cold, rain, snow.  It is amazing any of them made it to Oregon or Utah.



A map of the area we will visit.





 Those wagons were small. The houses with no insulation. Most of the pioneers came out of comfortable homes, civilized areas into heat, dust, indians and rough terrain.


This is wagon ruts left by the pioneers on their way to Oregon and Utah. I stepped the wheels off and found them to be about 4 feet apart. The wagon bed would have been smaller, I am estimating 3 1/2 feet wide. They moved a lot of furniture and staples on a small wagon.



It appears that the wagons them went in the area of the pine tree and started down.


Another look at the ruts the wagons left.


I am so glad they left this mark for us to see and remember so many years after they passed this way.


This old tree could tell many tales. The limbs are twisted and leaves a mark of beauty for us to see.



There are many cattle crossings.




We drive across cattle gaps as we enter the interstate. As we enter the cliffs area we also cross a cattle gap.


The rails are far enough apart it keeps cows in the fields not on the higways.


The cliffs, a very important stopping point for pioneers as they traveled west.



This cave blasted into the side of the cliffs was made as a root cellar. This was used to keep the vegetables cool.


A picture of some pioneers that were heading west.



This area was a ranch, a pony express stop, a supply location for pioneers.





On the sides of the cliff, we found cliff sparrow nests. Those little white dots are baby sparrows and mom was busy bringing food back to them.


More of those little nest.


Signatures were left by pioneers but as years went by, we have signatures of more current travelers.


Many of the pioneers died from Cholera. Some unmarked graves are here.


We left the area heading to a new campground.

1 comment:

  1. Really enjoying your blog Nan. Each of you writes completely different so never any worry about repeating. Love all the photos but the ones of the dogs napping are so cute. The first time I took the traveling longdogs on a long trip, they slept most of the day, just waking up when I would stop in traffic. I remember telling them that if they thought I was going to stay up with them all night, they had another thought coming but--no fear--they slept all night too. Sounds like everyone's dogs are good travelers.

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