Oregon Trail Ruts, Wyoming

This sounds like it shouldn't be correct, Oregon Trail in Wyoming, but the Oregon Trail went from Missouri to Oregon. There is a couple of locations where the ruts left behind by the thousands of wagons going by are very visible. I was sad to miss the sight in eastern Oregon, so I was happy we stopped here in Wyoming. The ruts are so deep, sometime 4 feet deep. During the use of the Oregon Trail, over 300,000 pioneers pass through this area. The soft sandstone wore away from the rolling wagons, walking pioneers, and sometimes were dug up to help the passage of the wagons. It was really cool to see.

 

 

We also went to see Register Cliff were pioneers used to stop and rest for a couple of days. There they would carve their names into the cliff for other family members to know they were there, dates given of people passing through, and sometimes as a memorial for those who passed away while on the journey. There was actually a movie being shot there about the cliffs, and they let us come and take some pictures of the cliffs. What was so distressing and actually made me angry was that there is virtually no evidence left of the pioneers' names because so many people have carved their names over the original names. So disrespectful.