Ash Hollow State Historical Park

For today's adventure, rather than venture into smoky Colorado, we decided to head east and explore Ash Hollow State Historical Park. We made the drive on US 26 and stopped just outside the park at the Oregon Trail Cemetery where an original headstone and modern memorial mark the grave of trail emigrant Rachael Pattison. 

We then headed into the park to explore. Our first stop was an old one-room schoolhouse.

From the schoolhouse, we headed over to the main park area, the site of Ash Hollow Cave. Unfortunately, the cave was closed. We were, however, able to hike around the area a bit. We hiked past the cave entrance and down to the springs area, 

where there is a large pool of fresh water. 

It was water the emigrants along the Oregon Trail were so excited to see at Ash Hollow, clean, fresh water. We hiked back up to the parking area and then on a trail 

with views down to the North Platte River. 

The trail ended at what seemed to be some sort of medicine wheel. 

After visiting the medicine wheel we returned to the car for a drive over to the Windlass Hill unit of the park.

Windlass Hill was a steep hill that emigrants had to descend to get down into Ash Hollow. Because it is so steep, they often locked the wheels on their wagons, causing severe ruts and erosion that can still be seen today. We hiked a paved trail up a ridge overlooking the area.

Then, we descended back to the car for the drive to the last stop of our adventure: California Hill. Like Windlass Hill, California Hill is a steep hill that wagons had to traverse. It is a little bit difficult to find, as it is not on state or federal land, but land that is apparently owned by the Oregon/California Trail Association. We had a short visit there, 

before heading to Sidney for a Dairy Queen dinner in the car and the drive home.  

Lory State Park: Arthur's Rock Trail

Today Noelle, Sierra, Rosie and I made the drive down into Colorado to go hiking at Lory State Park, just outside of Fort Collins. It was an uneventful drive and we arrived to a line of cars whose occupants were waiting to purchase entrance passes to the park. Luckily the line went fast, and soon enough we arrived at the trailhead for our hike to Arthur's Rock.

The hike was uphill, just about the whole way to Arthur's Rock. The scenery was terrific. 

There were views up to our objective for the out, and down to the Horsetooth Reservoir.

We stopped to take a break at a rock outcropping overlook.

Then, we had the toughest, steepest section of trail to contend with. Sierra got a bit discouraged at one point, but eventually she agreed to continue on to the summit area. She was glad she did, as the summit area offered her a chance to scramble around on the rocks there. 

It was crowded at the summit, but the views made up for all the people.

After about a half-hour relaxing at the summit, we started back down to the car. 

Then, we drove into Fort Collins to get some yummy chicken from Comet Chicken.