August 22, Halfway There

Today we drove through cowboy country again. I just love the west. I think I must have been a cowgirl in an other life! Ha. When we were going through the mountains, we got stopped for construction. They had only one lane traffic and you had to wait for those coming from the other direction before we could go. It was just like it was 60 years ago, except the last person in line no longer carries the flag to let the person at the other end know that you are the last vehicle. How exciting when you were the last car!

This is Independence Rock which is about half the way there. It is the beginning of the rocky part of the mountains and sits alone before the rest of the mountains. This is just all hard rock. The mountains here are not like those in Colorado which are tall and peaked. These you just go up then have plateaus then up more. The elevation here is 6,014 feet.

This is Devil's Rock, another landmark along the way. They did not go through it but around it. The cleft is 370' high and 1,500' long and was cut by the Sweetwater River. The Sweetwater got its name because the water had a sweet taste caused by the alkali in it.

Kids, remember yesterday I said that we traded our minivan in for the wagon and oxen. Well, we ran out of money and couldn't afford to feed the oxen so we traded that in on a wagon that Pop is going to pull the rest of the way.

This is a replica of the hand carts that many Mormon pulled all the way to Utah.

Just teasing, kids. We did not run out of money. Pop is just pretending to pull it.

This is a cattle guard. The fence to keep the cattle in would go across the road and need a gate. But that wouldn't work because no one wants to stop and open and shut gates so they put this in.

These bars are at the cattle guard and cows can't walk over them so you don't need a gate.

Just beautiful scenery.

More just beautiful. As you can see in these two pictures, there just aren't many trees which is why the emigrants depended upon the buffalo dung to burn for their cooking heat.

This is a gold mine near South Pass City.

Here is the famous South Pass where the emigrants crossed the top of the mountains. As you can see, it is a relatively flat area and it is 20 miles wide. Here is where they crossed the Continental Divide. The elevation here is 7,660'.

Robert Stuart of the American Fur Company discovered this easier way to cross the mountains in 1812. John Fremont, in 1842, encouraged people to use it.

When you see signs like this you know you are in the wild, wild west. We had no idea that there is still open range on route WY 372. It said it was for 27 miles and we did see cattle grazing but none on the highway. There were also signs warning you that antelope cross here at 55 mph and that grouse cross.




Different places today we saw magpies. Neither of us remember of see them before. They are a beautiful, black bird with white on it. They are about the size of our blue jays.

There were signs on WY 285 that stated when the lights are flashing you are to stop and put the chains on your wheels. It is apparently a Wyoming law of some type. There were snow fences beginning in Western Nebraska but they were all along every road that we were on today. There are also many places where there are arms that will block off the highway if there is too much snow. And we complain!!!!

Again, I just can't imagine trying to follow this route in a covered wagon, walking much of the time in the mountains to make the load lighter for the oxen to pull. And in heat, wind, rain, snow, mud, crossing rivers and getting soaked and who knows what else.