It is strange, but true, however, that so long as our prairies shall stretch themselves from river to ocean the imprint of the overland trail can never be obliterated.
– Gilbert L. Cole, 1852
The Oregon Trail stretches more than 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and today, more than 150 years after the first wagons rumbled over the land, there are more miles of trail to be seen in Wyoming than any other state. The trail is not a single path, but a corridor where branches sometimes overlap, and often converge with the California and Mormon Pioneer Trails.
Fort Laramie, established as a fur trade post in 1835 and revamped into a military post to protect trail travelers in 1849, was the first important stopping point for emigrants in Wyoming and is a good place to begin a journey over the trail today. Because Fort Laramie first served the fur trade, then was an important Indian treaty site and a supply station for emigrants, and then finally had a role in the military history of the region, its story
National Historic Trails Interpretive Center and Fort Casper
takes you from the period before wagons left their mark to the end of the trail era. You will find buildings – some restored, others relics – where emigrants rested and re-supplied and you can walk in the swales and ruts their wagons carved.
From Fort Laramie head west on U.S. 20/26 to Interstate 25, then head north to Casper – about a three-hour drive.
For a first-hand feel of emigrant travel, climb aboard the wagon at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper. Bump along in an ox-drawn wagon as you ford the North Platte River at its last crossing. Also visit Fort Caspar to see a replica of a ferry used by emigrants to cross the river before the first bridge in this area was constructed.
From Casper take Wyoming Highway 220 west in an hour-long drive to Independence Rock (the most noted landmark on the Oregon Trail) and then visit the nearby Handcart Visitor Center at Devils Gate, where you can push and pull an actual Mormon handcart.
To continue following the trail west to
Independence Rock
Fort Bridger, travel north on U.S. 287, west on Wyoming Highway 28, south on Wyoming Highway 372, and then west on Interstate 80. It will take you about five hours to drive from Independence Rock to Fort Bridger without stops, but you can break the trip up with an overnight stay along the way. That entire route generally parallels the trail as its winds through the Sweetwater River Valley over South Pass (the gentle break in the Rocky Mountains that was the key to the Oregon Trail route) and across the Red Desert.
Fort Bridger, an important trail supply point built “in the road of the emigrants” in 1843, was operated by mountain man Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez and later became a U.S. Army post. Today you can stock up on 19th-century goods at the recreated Fort Bridger Stockade and explore the military-era buildings.
Candy Moulton has traveled the Oregon Trail by wagon train, is the co-author of Wagon Wheels, A Contemporary Journey on the Oregon Trail, and makes her home near Encampment, Wyoming.
You can shop where the Queen of England did, see artwork in a ranch setting that was home to British nobility, and ride horses in Wyoming Bighorn mountains just like the first cattlemen or early dudes if you take a cowboy vacation to the Bighorns.
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Bear River State Park and Visitor Center, along I-80 on the east end of Evanston, is a day-use only park that features bicycle and foot paths as well as several picnic shelters. In the winter, the nearly three miles of foot trails double as cross-country ski trails. A footbridge crosses the river and brings visitors to a natural area. read more
