End of the Trail: Those Wagon Ruts

Over this weekend, I went on a trip to Laramie to visit the University of Wyoming. It is on my list of potential grad school programs, and honestly, I wasn't that impressed when Dad and I drove through campus last January. After promising to go back and talk to people and visit more thoroughly, I finally did....and I'm so glad that I was able to. I have a much better grasp on the school and the History Dept. and feel like I can make a much more informed decision when the time comes for me to do that.

About 40ish minutes away is Cheyenne, the state capitol, but more importantly, Chickfila. I was lucky to have Quincy along with me for company and a quasi-guide, and when we were planning the trip, I laid down the law and said there was NO WAY I was getting that close and not going to Chickfila. She graciously agreed to the slight detour (which literally is pretty slight in terms of distance out here!) despite having never had Chickfila before and not understanding the depths some people will go to to have it. She gets it now. :) So off we went to Chickfila and the mall and Target!! Needless to say, it was a great morning.

As we were headed back to Cody (it's a 6 hour drive Cody-Laramie, 7 hours Cody-Cheyenne), I saw a sign for Wagon Ruts. Mom, Dad, and Mike all know how much I love these wagon ruts, but most everybody else does not. These are wagon ruts of epic proportions. On our journeys to the west, we've been to these ruts 2 or 3 times, and they are so awesome.

*Short history lesson*
The settlement of the West with covered wagons happened from the early 1840s to about 1868. Once the transcontinental railroad was completed, people didn't really have to take covered wagons anymore because trains were faster and much safer. So for about 30 years, settlers moved West in covered wagons mostly along the same trail. Some people were so desperate to move West that they piled all their belongings on handcarts and PUSHED and PULLED them as they walked ACROSS THE UNITED STATES! (The handcarts absolutely amaze me. I saw one in a museum last year and it was smaller than the average dining room table. Imagine piling all your belongings on half of your dining room table and pushing it from North Carolina to visit me here in Wyoming. Nuts right?!) These wagon trains were led by guides who had traveled the way before, and mostly used the same trails time and again. Because thousands upon thousands of wagons traveled the same paths, there are many places where you can still see evidence of these wagons even today. This place with the wagon ruts is one of them.

So this particular area is about 15 miles from Fort Laramie in central Wyoming. Wagon trains covered about 13 miles a day on average, so this site is about a day's drive (by wagon) from Fort Laramie. As thousands of wagons crossed a couple hills here, they carved tracks in the rocks that only grew deeper as more and more wagons went through. At some points, I'm not sure how the wagons could even make it...I would think the wheels would be so deep the bottom of the wagons would get scraped by the rocks.

We've had some serious snow last week, and there are still several inches hanging around, so the pictures I took this time are pretty neat. I've never seen these ruts in the snow so it was fun for me to be there this time.