Wagon Trail Sites and from Wyoming to Idaho

My childhood fascination with the pioneers and their wagon journeys has never left me.  Helping to teach that period of American history only reinforced it.  So this trip has included several historic stopping places on the Oregon Trail.

Scotts Bluff was the first rock obstacle of the trail.  A bottleneck formed when single file wagons had to cross ravines between 2 sections of the formation.  You can walk the depressed area with 6 foot banks on each side that the wagon traffic left.

This gateway to the mountains that wagons and walkers would cross before Oregon was very impressive.  Not unlike the view from the top.  You can hike or drive up.

Before reaching Scotts Bluff many wagon trains camped at Chimney Rock.  It now has an excellent Visitor Center and a cemetery nearby.  Click on the picture to read the gravestone.

Our next destination was a favorite lake in Wyoming at Curt Gowdy State Park near Cheyenne.  We never thought what it might be like in April.  After setting up camp and stabilizing the trailer, we saw that the other camper had just left the empty park.  The wind began to howl as we noticed approaching dark clouds.  Sure enough the radio was predicting rain, snow, and high winds.  So we broke down camp and headed to lower ground.  Maybe we can enjoy this view another time.

After a white out snow storm and scary, high winds all night in Rawlins, WY,  we found one of the most scenic drives in the US for our next adventure.  Rt. 30 connects I-80 and I-15 west and north into Idaho at the little town of McCammon. A  large portion of the route is the old Oregon Trail as it follows 2 meandering rivers in gorgeous valleys rimmed by high mountains.  For both of us the scenery was 'top of the list' fantastic.  I could have turned around the next day and repeated the route. A night in a tiny park in McCammon was a nice ending to the day, however.