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.