Gurnsey Ruts - The curse of the Trail hits again

Dawn broke clear and refreshing.  The cloudless blue skies beckoned us once again to hit the trail.

Our itinerary for the day was to take us about 250 miles where nightfall would find us deep in central Wyoming, poised to cross the Continental Divide the next day.

This however was not meant to be.

Our first several stops including Ft Laramie went without a hitch.  (too tired to blog much more tonight - will do Ft Laramie tomorrow).

The Gurnsey Ruts are a point where the topography forced all the wagons to follow a very narrow spot across some soft sandstone.  The thousands of wagons, tens of thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands of animals left an amazing imprint in the land.

I'll let the photos do the talking but let me mention that these gullies were not carved by pick or hammer, but simply the passage of a wave of humanity and their possessions.

Just like those before us - swift and easy passage was not to come without a price.

In our situation is was a relatively minor 20th century price, but the ghost of the trail continues to haunt us.  When we returned back down the hill from the ruts, our keys for the RV were missing.  I had them in my pocket - I think - so back up the hill, and retrace our steps.

Then back down the hill to re-search the car - but wait - SNAKE DELAY -  there is this big gigantic brown snake on the trail and I don't know what the heck it is...  Have to wait for him to pass.

Long story short - 2 hours of searching the keys finally turned up in a place we would never have expected them to be.   What's up with that?

This delay was enough to set us back one more day on the schedule.  We are now 2 days behind.

I have extra days padded into my schedule so no big deal.....  Yet.

Hope the snows in Yellowstone don't trap us.  Kate will be skinning me and eating me like a good Kobe  Filet in no time.