Independence Rock

While we were on our way home from our vacation to Utah this summer, we had the opportunity to stop in Wyoming and visit my lovely sister Sandra and her adorable family. One of the activities we did was to go and visit Independence Rock. I have always enjoyed going to Independence Rock. I am a huge lover of history and Independence Rock is one of the great pioneer historical sites in Wyoming. The rock was an important landmark for the pioneers coming West as it lies directly along the route of the pioneer trails and that emigrant wagon parties bound for Utah, Oregon or California, which usually left the Missouri River in the early spring, attempted to reach the rock by July 4, in order to reach their destinations before the first mountain snowfalls. During the period of westward emigration on the trail (from 1843 to 1869), it was common for emigrants to carve their names in the granite rock, especially near the summit. Other emigrants left behind messages, sometimes for parties behind them on the trail, in axle grease. You can still see many of the names carved in the rock, in fact the kids made a game of trying to find the oldest name. I think that the oldest one we saw was carved in July of 1850.


Here is an example of one of the names carved in the rock. It was fun to see the kids running around looking at the names and getting excited about the different dates.


Sandra with all the kids, taking a break in the shade.


Me and Phil with our little family. We were all about the dum dum suckers on this trip. We had a huge bag of the little beauties in the car and we used them as bribes, silencers, and treats.






Who can resist jumping from rock to rock? Apparently, no one. Jocelyn, Caleb, and Phil all got in touch with their inner jumping bean.


Even Mckenna was getting in on the act.

Such a great day!

Comments

Sandra said…
You got some really great pictures of that day! It was lots of fun and you will definitely have to send them to me when you get a chance.
September 7, 2010 at 7:40 AM
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