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Rockies Vacation - Day 1

Technically, our first day of vacation was mostly spent in the airport and the second day was the day of the wedding, but I'm starting with the day after since this was the first chance Kari and I had to really explore our surroundings. We started exploring around noon, having eaten a late and hearty breakfast with the bride & groom and the bride's family. Our first stop was the National Historic Trails Interpretive center. This is a first-rate, although relatively small museum, but packed with information and statistics on the great western migration of the mid 1800's.

Apparently, four of the great migratory trails followed the North Platte River and made their way through Casper before diverging just west of the present day city. The Oregon Trail, Mormon Pioneer Trail, California Trail and the Pony Express Trail all followed this well-established path. I had always heard about the hardships of life on the trail, but this museum really brought home the bravery and strength of will and sacrifice necessary to make the journey.

After soaking up the pioneer spirit, we drove across the valley and up Casper Mountain anxious for our first taste of fresh mountain air. We were probably at an elevation somewhere between 8000 and 8500 ft. when we pulled into the small parking lot at the Crimson Dawn Museum. This museum is really the mostly fully preserved home of Neal Forsling, a Missouri woman who moved to the tiny mountain cabin in 1929 and surrounded herself with a virtual fairy-world of her own design. She invented stories of various forest witches for the delight of neighboring children and devised a celebration held each year on Midsummer's Eve, a a tradition the is followed to this day. We wandered around her forest shrines and ended our walk on the mountainside, breathing the aromas of sagebrush and pine and admiring the view of the surrounding mountains.