Walking on the Oregon Trail and then driving into Wyoming!

We walked along the Oregon Trail through Mitchell's Pass at Scott's Bluffs this morning.  It was very cool to walk down the path, looking at the ruts and imagining pulling a wagon through here.  On a mild, cool day it would be hard work.  On a stormy or blistering hot day, it would be rough.  Those people were strong.  When they reached this spot, they were done with the prairies.  They had completed 1/3 of the trip, the easy part.  The mountains lay ahead of them.  George and I wondered why more didn't stop in Nebraska.  We were told that it was pretty much a desert and Indian territory.

We followed the North Platte River most of the day, and it looks like a good place to make a home.  As we drove, we had the North Platte on one side and the railroad on the other.  Trains carrying coal travel east, and trains with empty cars travel west.
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Prairie grasses along the trail.



This is part of the actual Oregon Trail.



Mitchell Pass was a landmark to the pioneer families.

We moved on to Wyoming today, driving to Casper.  Casper is on the way to Yellowstone, where
we are going on Friday.  There are more beautiful parts of Wyoming, but we needed to drive in
a northwest direction.  Tonight we are staying in an RV in someone's driveway in Casper.  This is an airbnb connection.  How smart of this couple to rent space in their RV, that is just sitting in the
driveway anyway!


Our home for the night.

We took a walk around the neighborhood, which is full of new homes.  Very different from the south.
Fewer trees, more trucks and RVs in the driveways, lots of rabbits.  Yes, we saw many bunnies hopping around.  They seem to live under the fir trees.  Are they the Wyoming squirrel?


Look closely and you can see two rabbits under there.