Part 7: Break out the rye whiskey

The view north from South Pass. It was near here in the spring of 1824 that Jedediah Smith led a small group of trappers across this Rocky Mountain pass that Lewis and Clark had hoped but failed to find some 20 years before.

After passing through a front range quarter sized hail storm just north of Greely, Colorado we stopped for the night at Tie City Campground in the Medicine Bow National Forest 12 miles southeast of Laramie, Wyoming, home to the University of Wyoming. The cool night air was welcomed with an open fire and rye whiskey before falling to sleep under the stars even after being forewarned by the ranger about a bear whom had been frequenting the campground.

Frontier Whiskeys only

The next morning we were up with the sunrise bird watching around the campground due to a much shorter drive in the coming day. The birds were hollering keen and in the crisp morning air their calls seemed exceptionally sharp while in the background the Aspen leaf’s quaking invitation to hide amid their fluttering camouflage made bird watching very challenging.

Our next stop was at the Wyoming Frontier Prison in Rawlins, Wyoming before heading north into the Barrens of the Great Divide Basin.

As we crossed into the Great Divide Basin on an awe inspiring journey we crossed the continental divide for the first time that day only be to be repeated two more times before we crossed South Pass. The basin covers almost 4,000 square miles where water comes in but does not flow out resulting in over five alkaline lakes. Within the basin there is a dry and inhospitable terrain that caused the Oregon Trail to follow the Sweetwater River to South Pass and causing the Overland trail to take a more southerly route using Bridger Pass. At the South Pass on highway 28 just a few miles west from where the settlers crossed, a gradual descent begins that brings one to the parting of the ways along Little Sandy Creek.

As poignant as this stop is the feeling quickly fades as we close in on Pinedale, Wyoming where we are going to link up with Tom and Patty for the Mountain Festival and rendezvous!