Denver

It was a long day of travel again today as we moved south toward the National Parks in Utah.  On the way we learned about the pioneers that moved west to take up land and the conflicts that arose with the Native Americans. One of the stops was at Fort Laramie which at one stage housed about 700 troops.  Interestingly it was not a fortified installation, just a group of buildings.

The main function appeared to be to keep the peace between people travelling the Oregon Trail and the Native Americans.  The barracks (above) were fairly basic for the troops but the commanding officers were well looked after.

So many settlers passed along the trail that in places the carts packed the dirt so hard that the wheel ruts are still evident.

We stopped in Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming for a short time on our way through to Denver in Colorado.  Cheyenne is trying to encourage tourism as a major town of the West and there are fancy boots all over the place.

 

We have another long day tomorrow with a lot of travel and an evening river tour that means we will not get back to our hotel until late.  We are up each morning between 5.30 and 6.00 so it is nearly time to go home for a rest.