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| Wagon swale at Rock Creek Station State Historic Park |
During our years of travel, we have managed to nearly traverse the entire length of the California, Oregon, Pony Express and Santa Fe Trails. In very few places is there any evidence left of the trail, especially if you do not know for what you are looking. Much of the main branches of the old trail have been preserved in railroads and roads for automobiles. The trail was never a single-track route and many of the minor branches have been largely erased by the plow on farmland. In other spots, the track of the wagons is preserved as a swale, a depression worn by the wagons in which the individual ruts are not identifiable. An example of this is in the picture to the left, which shows a wagon swale at Rock Creek Station State Historic Park near Fairbury, Nebraska. The swale runs from center right in the picture and continues towards the left.
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| 6 foot tall Ben walking in a rut |
After leaving Fort Laramie, at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers, the settlers following the North Platte River climbed up sandstone bluffs near present day Guernsey, WY. The passage of thousands of wagons wore ruts into the sandstone to a depth of up to six feet here. Not only are the swales preserved, but you can actually see the ruts that accomodated the wagon wheels. The sandstone was soft enough to be eroded by the wagons, but is resistant enough to erosion that we can still see direct evidence of the passage of a road here. The climb from the valley floor is a treacherous one, and looking at today's landscape, it is difficult to see why the traveler's did not just stay between the bluffs and the river. The trip up onto the High Plains must have been easier going over the hills, but the going was tough. Some of the rock was gouged out by settlers trying to make the passage easier.
Ruts criss-cross each other so people were passing slower wagons by cutting their own trail. On the five month trip west, a delay of a few days could be the difference between making it to your destination safely or getting caught in snow in the mountains and dying (or worse). Over a period of about 25 years, about 300,000 people passed over this ground, making it one of the epic migrations of human history.
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| I can't imagine the busted knuckles and swearing this must have caused |
If you are a trail history buff, this is a must-see stop. Close to Fort Laramie and Register Cliff, you could spend an entire day within the space of an hours drive. At no other place along the California-Oregon trail will you see trail ruts that are this well preserved.
While you can see ruts from the paved walking trail, you will have to walk off-road a bit to see the best developed ruts on site. Make sure to keep an eye and ear out for rattlesnakes, though. Just off of the parking area at the bottom of the hill are restrooms and a picnic area.
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| Shallower ruts |
Getting There
We got there by taking US-26 from Scottsbluff west to Guernsey. At Guernsey, we took a left onto Lucinda Rollins Rd and followed the signs to the parking area. From I-25, you get onto US-26 East from Exit 92 into Guernsey. The turn onto Lucinda Rollins Rd will be a right. The way is fairly well signed. Heck, Ben and I got there during our 2015 ManTrip to Montana.
Waypoint: Latitude: 42.2570414 N; Longitude: 104.7511572 W
Further Reading
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