Today’s first stop was Chimney Rock National Historic Site:

I hiked out to it:

I met this fellow on the trail:

The spire has lost about 30 feet of height in the last 150 years.  Here’s a photograph from 1906:

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I next stopped in the town of Bayard to take on water at their free campground:

Continuing north, I visited the quintessential Americana that is Carhenge: 

Next I visited Niobrara National Scenic River:

I ran the Cowbow Trail to the bridge:

Views from the bridge:

I continued on to overnight at Rock County Airport in Bassett, Nebraska:

I checked out the pilot lounge:

I spoke with a couple guys who were flying home from the EAA fly-in in Oshkosh, Wisconsin:

See the trip map for today’s drive.

This morning the wind was too strong, so I said goodbye to the Pawnee Buttes and headed north into Wyoming:

My first stop today was the Torrington homesteading museum in Torrington, Wyoming:

Next stop was Fort Laramie National Historic Site:

Fort Laramie was a 19th-century military outpost and fur trading location along the Oregon Trail:

The Fort Laramie Bridge, built in 1876, spans the North Platte river.  US troops used the bridge when fighting Native American tribes in that year:

If you’re thinking to yourself “isn’t that a King patent tubular bowstring iron bridge?” you would be right.  This bridge is the best preserved bridge of this type still in existence.

Next, I visited Register Cliff State Historic Site, where travelers on the Oregon Trail carved their names into the cliff:

19th century graffiti:

Next, I checked out Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site, where the wagon ruts made by pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail in the first half of the 19th century are visible:

I continued on into Nebraska:

I overnighted at the Walmart of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  See the trip map for today’s drive.