4 May – Laramie – Deadwood

We didn’t have a great night, being next to both the Interstate Highway AND the main rail line, both of which ran all night. We were up and on the road early, as we had a big drive ahead. We travelled North with the Rockies to the left and the Laramie Mountains to the right. The plains were very bare and rugged. Speaking of trains, we overtook one that was at least 60 plus cars long, with 4 diesel engines.

Turning East, we crossed the Laramie Mountains and into farmland. It is early in the season, so the remnants of last year’s crops are still in the fields. We passed a paddock with bison and saw a number of prong horned antelope in the distance. 

We turned North again and began following the Oregon Trail route. At a town called Guernsey, we stopped at 2 significant historical places, the Oregon Trail Ruts and the Register Cliffs. The Oregon Trail is visible for some of its length, despite it being just wheel ruts and 150 years old. The Guernsey site is one where the wagon wheels wore deep ruts in soft sandstone and are clearly visible. Even after the obvious ruts, you can still see the trail heading away across the fields. 

The Register Cliff is a camping place that the pioneers used regularly and it became a “thing” for people to carve their name, place of origin and the date into the soft sandstone cliffs. The information board says that the oldest name is a trapper from 1790 something and the tradition continued through cowboys, army scouts stationed at nearby Fort Laramie and up to modern times. They have fenced off the old names and left sections for modern graffiti.

Driving North, the scenery changed first to drier plains with tumbleweeds caught in the fences and then to the foothills of the Black Hills in South Dakota. As we drove into the hills we started driving past snowdrifts and log cabins. We arrived in Deadwood for the night to find that we are in the lower zones of the snow line, its gonna be a cold one! We also had a couple of little visitors near our site, so we left a couple of nuts out for them.