Yesterday, Sunday, August 12th,  was a traveling and historical lesson day.  We departed the Denver Metro area and headed north on I-25.  We turned east on US Highway 26 in Wyoming and stopped at the Oregon Trail Ruts which are considered an Historical landmark on the southside of the North Platte River.  From there we went 10 miles further to the National Historic Site, Fort Laramie.  Both increased our education about the thousands of wagons and people who crossed the Western Frontier to homestead in Oregon, Utah and California.   At the end of the day we camped 1/2 mile from Chimney Rock in western Nebraska.

Today, Monday, August 13the, was another traveling and sightseeing day.  We started by driving the 1/2 mile to the visitor center for Chimney Rock.  We got out of the RV and were greeted with signs that warned of rattlesnakes in the area, SO STAY ON THE PAVED PATH!!  We readily obeyed those signs staying in the MIDDLE of the paved paths!  Chimney Rock was mentioned more than any other landmark in the journals and letters of the many pioneers who traveled past it.  Next we headed to Scotts Bluff National Monument.  The ranger there put us in a mini-van and drove us to the top of the monument....a  1.9 mile distance, built largely by hand and completed in 1939.  The ranger then drove us back down and gave us an educational lecture on the Studebaker Brothers who first made Connestoga wagons...and of course later cars in Indiana..  For our final destination today, we headed for Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.  We again were educated about the many fossil animal species of the Miocene period (about 20 million years ago) that have been discovered here.

North Platte River

Looking down at the ruts left by the many wagons passing through.

Looking up at the Oregon Trail wagon wheel ruts

Enlisted calvary barracks

Connestoga wagon

Parade grounds at Ft. Laramie (named for a French fur trader that was believed to have been murdered.

Store at Ft. Laramie

Officers Row...housing provided for married officers & their families

Old Bedlam is the name given to the single officers' quarters

Base Commander's home at Ft. Laramie

The Calvary built this steel bridge across the Platte River

Chimney Rock in the late afternoon

Chimney Rock in the morning (as seen from our campsite)

Chimney Rock...surrounded by area that looks much the same as it did in the 1800's

When travelers on the Oregon Trail saw Chimney Rock,
they knew that they had traveled about 500 miles of their long journey.

Scotts Bluff, west end

Scotts Bluff

Scotts Bluff from the visitor center parking

Scotts Bluff from the top

Looking West from Scotts Bluff

Looking West as the pioneers did many years ago

Daeodon - giant pig-like ungulate

Stone walls past Ft. Robinson

Stone walls past Ft. Robinson

More interesting stone walls past Ft. Robinson