June 2022 Vacation Day 19, Fort Laramie · · PAGE 51.

June 10, 2022:  This is the North Platte river behind the buildings of old Fort Laramie.  When I came here in 1998, there were wagon ruts near this place from pioneers crossing the river at the shallow locations.

The park ranger at Fort Laramie gave me this simple map to get to the wagon ruts near the town of Guernsey.

We departed Fort Laramie and drove over to the town of Guernsey to see the wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail.  This is Wyoming Avenue, the main street.

It was HOT and I decided I did not want Linda walking up that hill to see something we can see online.  Here is what I found showing the parking area from a Google Earth image.  There were two informational panels there in October 2007 in this image.

There were a few places where the pioneers heading west along the Platte River looked for shallow water to cross the river.  The Conestoga Wagon Ruts seen below are near the town of Guernsey, Wyoming.  This view is looking up hill.  Those pine trees were not there when these ruts were created.

Here are the same ruts looking in the opposite direction.

This site now has three displays near the site of the trail ruts as of June 10, 2022 when we visited this location.

This is part of the wagon train story of pioneers and what they faced to get across the Platte River on the way west.

Each of the three panels tell part of the story about the westward migration.

This next segment of our highway travels crosses the North Platte River as we leave the town of Guernsey behind us heading for Interstate 25 traveling south toward Denver.

15 Miles to Interstate 25 ahead.  We will leave US 26 there going south toward Denver.  We first saw US 26 in Oregon on this big western tour. 

This turn south will get us on the way home - eventually.  Tonight, the motel is another pet friendly Motel 6 East of Denver in Aurora, Colorado.

Here we are back in Colorado for the second time on this 23-day vacation road trip out west.  The first event was when we stayed at a Motel in Cortez, Colorado for our brief visit at the Four Corners on May 31.  We are now headed to the Denver area to our Motel 6 stop in Aurora, Colorado.

Coming into Colorado, the Interstate 25 mile marker at the state line is 299.  We will continue south to exit 217 B which is the beginning of the I-270 short cut on the northeast side of Denver.  This part of the trip south is after dark and had some areas of road construction ahead.  I-270 is only 5 miles long where it connects from I-25 to I-70 East.

The ride on I-70 is about 3 miles until we go south on I-225.  The mile marker 5 on this sign indicates the five-mile length of I-270.

Mile marker 282 is the distance from the state line with Utah as I-70 travels East to this location.  We will use I-225 going south on the East side of Denver to reach our motel for this night.

This is where we get off the interstate highway and turn LEFT at the end of the ramp going over to our motel for tonight.  This exit is 5 miles north of the end of I-225 where it connects to I-25 to continue south tomorrow, June 11, 2022.

It is 3/10ths of a mile to Blackhawk Street where we turned LEFT there to get to the Motel 6 for tonight. They are pet friendly and that is why we stayed in those motels.

The Motel 6 sign is by the street next to a diner.  The brown and white motel is at the right side of this Google Earth image below.

There are 20 images and graphics on this page.  It is time to start another page.