We Stumbled Upon the Oregon Trail

We left Estes Park, CO headed for the Black Hills, SD (specifically Hill City, SD) which was about 6 or 7 hours away. I had our driving atlas in my lap and I was literally the back seat driver for our trip. Our oldest son gets queasy unless he sits up front, which works out well because I can do anything in the car such as read, or make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches sitting anywhere and the hubs prefers to drive and I tell him where to turn. He just had XM satellite radio installed before the trip so he was happy (and I wasn’t with them for the first 6 days so I guess they managed without me).

(here is is strumming along to a tune).

As we headed north of Cheyenne, WY on I-25, I noticed a tall mountain to our left – called Laramie Peak. We pulled over for gas and debated whether to just make sandwiches in a parking lot or head a little more north. We decided to keep driving and I am so glad we did because we saw a small rest stop with picnic tables.......and a poster display showing that about 15 miles down the road was a National Historic Park with evidence of The Oregon Trail and a Register Cliff with name carvings. They call it the Guernsey Ruts. It was not out of the way, just another way toward where we needed to go. What I loved about this National Historic site is that there were no huge signs and in fact you went down a gravel road. It was off the beaten path, which is typically our style of travel (for example our feelings about island travel is if a cruise ship can get there, it's too big for us). I was so excited and the boys were too.

(this is youngest son--we told him to pose because in 3 years when he is in 5th grade he can blow this photo up and teach the lesson).

Had I even ever thought of The Oregon Trail before? Well there are those times I helped quiz my two oldest sons for Social Studies tests. This past year my middle son was in 5^th grade and I really got into his social studies. Several times I offered to help him study and the next thing you know I had hijacked his textbook to read all about the Westward Expansion and the sod houses and the Battle of Little Big Horn. In fact this year he made a point of telling me that we needed to see Night at the Museum 2 because General Custer was a character.

At this historic site there are a few plaques by the parking lot and then just land and you then walk all over the place.

And they weren’t in just one spot….there was a whole trail of them. There’d be prairie land and then an outcropping of sandstone. Hundreds and thousands of wagons would follow close behind one another with mostly oxen pulling them. The wheel ruts are worn to a depth of five feet in some places. I could picture the pioneers getting a taste of what would be coming ahead as they passed this rocky and pitched area and saw Laramie Peak in the distance.

I don’t remember learning about the Trail when I was a kid. But the strangest thing is that when I was in labor with my first son at the hospital I had an image pop into my head of women on the trail having to give birth in a covered wagon (I am not kidding—I have no idea why a covered wagon appeared in mind) and I really felt lucky as I was with a skilled midwife and I felt very cared for, and it gave me the strength knowing if they could survive that, then I can certainly find the strength to safely birth my baby.

After we took many pictures (and heard the target practice going on at an unseen National Guard area) we followed the minimal signs to the Register Cliffs.

Just 15 miles west of this cliff is Fort Laramie where the army had a base and where the Sioux and fur trappers would trade goods (I was almost going out of my skin that Crazy Horse had been there in the 1860’s). The emigrants would camp near Fort Laramie and then they would pass along this cliff and many would carve their names and the date. When we arrived there was a ranger (actually taking a poll as to how we heard about the site and he laughed when we told him at the new rest stop). The cliff is on private property, and sure there are areas where modern people carved in their names but the really old area has fencing around it. High above swallows built their clay-looking nests into the cliffs.

We still had a lot of driving to do so we did not stop at Ft. Laramie, but the rest of the drive through Wyoming, with Nebraska to our east, and South Dakota to our northeast was beautiful. We saw antelope and lots of volcanic outcroppings like a mini Devils Tower. The hubs keeps talking about what a beautiful area that was and what a great drive it was. I am very glad because the next day was cold, misty and grey, and someone had a meltdown. And it wasn’t me. Or the kids.