Lander, Wyoming

Yesterday, Saturday, June 19th, we left Casper - headed southwest on Hwy 220 - a very good 2-lane. About 50 miles from Casper we stopped at Independence Rock State Historic Site located at a Rest Area. This is a stand-alone rock formation 136 feet high and 5900 feet (over a mile) around the base. It was a major landmark for all the travelers on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. This rock formation was not only a landmark, but a milestone they wanted to reach by July 4th. They wanted to get over the Rocky Mountains before the first snows of winter and they knew if they reached Independence Rock by July 4th, they were in good shape.

The pioneers who passed by here took the time to stop and camp a day or two. Similar to Register Cliff, a lot of the pioneers carved their names into the rock. The type of rock here is different from the sandstone of Register Cliff and many of the names have been eroded away or made almost unreadable - however, there are still some that are in good shape.









A few miles down the road we came to another historic spot - the Devil’s Gate. This is a narrow cleft that the Sweetwater River has carved in the Sweetwater Rocks that is about 370 feet deep and 1500 feet long. The cleft is 30 feet wide at the base but nearly 300 feet at its top. Adjacent to Devil’s Rock is the Mormon Handcart Historical Center and Martin’s Cove. We stopped there because we wanted to see the Devil’s Gate and didn’t know all the Mormon stuff was here. The Mormons on their trek to the Great Salt Lake valley back in the 1800’s did not use wagons like the Oregon Trail emigrants did. They used handcarts to haul their stuff and pulled & pushed them by hand - no animals. Today at the Devil’s Gate and Mormon Handcart Historical Site, they were having some sort of festival with a big re-enactment of the handcart stuff going on. There must have been a couple of thousand folks there - we found a place to park, went to the Visitor’s Center, but other than that, we didn’t stay there very long.





We continued on Hwy 220 to Muddy Gap Junction, then took Hwy 287 north to Lander. All day we were riding through the high plains desert - a lot of miles & miles of no civilization. The Pronghorn Antelopes still are plentiful and we‘re seeing snow covered mountains in the distance. When I say all day was a drive through high plains desert, I mean “high”. We started at 5100 feet elevation in Casper, went up to 6100, down to 5800, back up to 6500, and topped out somewhere along the way around 6800 feet.







Today, Sunday, was a day of worship, then some sightseeing. After attending church services in Lander, we went riding in the afternoon to visit a couple of places. First, we went 14 miles north of Lander to the Wind River Shoshone Indian Reservation and the Indian community of Ft. Washakie - named after an old Shoshone Indian Chief. According to the guide books, the Indian woman Sacajawea, of Lewis & Clark fame, is buried in a cemetery close by. We found the cemetery and found out it is named in her honor - there is a statue and a couple of plaques.


After leaving the cemetery we came back to Lander and headed west out of town about 9 miles to Sinks Canyon State Park. This park is up over 7000 feet elevation and is in a huge canyon on the Popo Agie River. There is one place where part of the river goes underground (the sinks) for about a quarter mile, then comes out (the rise) into a big pool. There is also an overflow part of the river that does not go underground. There is a very nice Visitor’s Center with a very helpful Park Ranger.







Tomorrow - moving on along the Oregon Trail!