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.