September 15-16 2022 Fort Bridger Wyoming

September 15, 2022

Fort Bridger was one of the forts on the emigrant trails so, of course, I wanted to see it.

“Jim Bridger established Fort Bridger in 1843 as a fur trading post. It was composed of two double-log houses about 40 feet long that were joined by a pen for horses. The fort soon became a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails and expanded in size. In 1857, during the Utah War, Mormons set fire to the fort to prevent the U.S. Army from using it. However, the army rebuilt the fort a year later and used it as a military post until 1890. In the 1860s, it also served as a Pony Express station.
Today's Fort Bridger State Park contains 37 acres of grounds, 27 historic structures, and four historic replica structures. The park offers self-guided tours of the fort, living history demonstrations, open archeological excavations, museum exhibits, and a civilian cemetery. “

More information can be found here:

https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/places-to-go/fort-bridger

http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/bridger.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bridger

Jim Bridger:

We started our tour at the museum.  It was built as an infantry barracks and then used as a milk barn.

This wheel represents all the uses of this property thru out time – from Mountain Men to Mormon to Military and now Museum. 

We first watched a video on the history of the Fort and then explored the museum.

A few interesting items from the museum:

Love the hat!

I would love to have a copy of this map.

They had a huge light board and a separate board with all the trails.  Pressing any button showed the trail – start to finish – it was cool.

Interesting:

After the museum and talking with the ranger, we headed out to see the buildings.  Some were open and some were not. 

The buildings were a collection of different eras, from the mountain men thru to the military who were the last to occupy the fort.

Replica of the original trading post.  Beside the trading post, there was a blacksmith shop and a sleeping area.

When the Mormons took over the fort, they built a wall around it.  This is part of that original wall (not a replica):

One of the original fireplugs put in by the military:

Looking across the parade grounds at the 1887 Guard House:

Goshen Creek – it was overflowing:

The Commanding Officer’s Quarters 1884-1890:

We were able to go inside and look into the rooms – nice.

Family Cemetery:

The 1858 Officer’s Quarters:

Part of Carter’s Trading Post area:

The inside of the Pony Express Stables:

The Ice House – filled from the top:

Judge Carter also started the first school house in Wyoming:

We have seen monuments similar to this to mark the different trails:

Military Road Marker:

Pony Express Marker:

Lincoln Highway Marker:

As the Lincoln Highway developed, many hotels and cabins sprung up.  These are replicas of the cabins that were once located here:

Inside of one of the cabins – bathrooms were out back:

What a great tour!

Since it was early and a nice day, we decided to take a little ride around the area and look what we found – a Buffalo Farm.

Aren’t they cute?

What a nice day!

We love the road but sometimes we get exhausted and then do not feel like seeing things/places or just rush thru them.  Going thru Fort Bridger today, we at that point.  So we are staying here one more day to rest and get caught up with some things around the motorhome.

And that is just what we did on September 16! 

One of our visitors from the farm next door.

I did have a bit of good news.  Escapees has a group called DaysEnd which gathers information on low cost and free camping areas.  I have been contributing since 2009 and today I received an email that I have contributed enough to be a lifetime member.  I am excited.  We have found so many neat little places with that directory.

Tomorrow we head to Idaho to spend time with my friend Sue.

Stay tuned and enjoy today.

July 28 - 29, 2014 Yellowstone National Park

Monday, 28th, our journey took us into Yellowstone National Park.  From our campground, it is 22 miles to the East Entrance of the Park and then another 27 miles to the first village.

Once we entered the gate, the road started to ascend and then hugged the mountain side:

We did stops along the way and all the mountain wildflowers were in bloom:

The road took us thru Sylvan Pass:

This is the only park road that crosses the Absaroka Mountain Range, an immense chain of volcanoes 50 million years old, much more ancient than the Yellowstone Plateau.  Buffalo Bill Cody was instrumental in getting this road and entrance from the park to Cody.

We passed Sylvan Lake:

And made our way down the mountain to Yellowstone Lake.

Yellowstone Lake is the largest high altitude lake in North America – 7733 feet.  It measures 20 by 14 miles, 339 feet deep with 110 miles of shoreline.

Notice the trees – this is one of the areas where fire has happened:

This is from one of the overlooks – the road makes it way along the lake:

Flowers everywhere!

We saw evidence of fire in many of the places on the west side of Sylvan Pass as you can see on the above pictures. 

We made our way down to the lake shore where the water was cold – Brrrr.

On one of the overlooks, we met this fellow:

Two videos of these huge birds:

http://youtu.be/yEMWm1Ty-NY

http://youtu.be/Bi4EvJgm_o4

On that same overlook, we saw fumaroles, or steam vents.  These fumaroles form when temperatures are so high that all the moisture escapes the ground as steam rather than water.

From the lake, we stopped at Pelican Creek Valley area:

We did not see any grizzlies but we did see trumpeter swans and pelicans.

Trumpeter Swans are one of the world’s rare birds.  In Yellowstone, they are commonplace.  They are located here, in Alaska, and in Red Rock Lakes.

We stopped at Fishing Village and checked out their RV Park, Visitor Center, and Museum and then headed north to Hayden Valley.

The valley is 9 miles long and 6 miles wide and the year round home to over 1000 bison.  It is also where there are many traffic jams.  Today was no exception.

This guy was HUGE:

At the turn of the century, America’s wild bison – which at one time numbered 60 million- had dwindled to about two dozen animals.  The bison in Yellowstone today are descendants of those survivors and there is over 4000 of them in the park.

Yes, they make themselves at home:

Check out this bison in the video – wasn’t sure if he was going to run into me or ???

http://youtu.be/NHGFyqq7sT4

They are so majestic!

Hayden Valley and one of the herds of American Bison:

Traffic Jam:

Male bison can weigh up to 2000 pounds:

Notice the babies.  There was so many young in this herd.  The babies are born a vey light brown.  They will be dark by the time winter is here:

Another view of the valley:

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  We stopped at the Lower Falls Overlook first. 

The Lower Falls:

I loved the color contrasts:

A video of the Lower Falls:

http://youtu.be/MR3-jIjk-ZM

The Yellowstone River flows north from Yellowstone Lake.  It decreases in altitude creating the Yellowstone Falls.  The Upper Falls plunges 109’ and the Lower Falls plunges 308’.

Our next stop was the top of the Upper Falls – the water was roaring:

From there we went to the Canyon Village area and found a nice picnic table to have lunch.  Afterwards we walked thru the Visitor Center, Museum, Store and saw both movies on Yellowstone.

There are a number of museums in Yellowstone and each has a theme.  The Canyon Museum was all about the Yellowstone Volcano and Caldera.

Some interesting facts:

They continue to research the area.  In the fall of 2013, researchers announced that the Yellowstone Hot Spot is 2.5 times bigger than they previously thought.  It doesn’t mean that the magma chamber is growing or that an eruption is imminent, it just means that newer equipment, newer research, and more studies are giving us better data.

They also discovered last year, that the park is releasing much more helium that they originally thought – to the tune of hundreds of times more.  WOW!

After the museum, we decided to head back.  It was almost 3 PM and we were about 70 miles from home.

We went back thru Hayden Valley:

Mating time will be soon – late summer, early fall – and this scene will be replayed over and over:

This bison decided to lead the cars up the road:

Past the lake, where the clouds were getting dark – oh, oh:

And our last big surprise of the day – isn’t she cute :

It was a WONDERFUL but LONG day!

I love Yellowstone but have yet to stay in the park.  This time of year, it is so crowded.  Some of the places we want to see, there were so many cars and no places to park – Yikees!!!

So some year, I will make reservations at each of the campgrounds over a summer – ! 

 

Tuesday, 29th, we woke to clouds and rain and just hung out.  We have decided to move to West Yellowstone tomorrow.  We would love to be here the full 16 days but will probably need a dump station before them.  The closet one is 20 miles east at Buffalo Bill State Park or 50 miles west in Yellowstone.  We could make it a few more days but that would put us into the weekend and we try not to move during a weekend (if possible).  We hope to stay at one of the forest service campgrounds on the west side of Yellowstone so we can stay in the forest a little longer.

To get there, we will be going thru Yellowstone, so stay tuned for more pictures and enjoy today.