Day 6 - Oregon Trail-Ft Bridger to Pocatello, ID
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| I departed Rock Springs with a full tank of gas, and am now passing by the town of Green River again. Check out how the intgerstate highway tunnels right through that mountain. |
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I followed Interstate 80 to Fort Bridger.
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| And that is the town of Fort Bridger, established by mountain man Jim Bridger as a fur trading outpost in 1842. It was a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, California Trail and Morman Trail. There is a Fort Bridger State Historica Site down there but I could not find it from the air. |
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About three miles to the north is the Fort Bridger airport (KFBR). Nice looking runway.
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When I flew the Oregon Trail ten years ago in the Citabria, there were a couple of legs I didn't fly because of diversions for weather. The Fort Bridger to Bear Lake leg was the final leg I hadn't done. Today was the day! I had brought my AirCharts (West) book with the Oregon Trail marked on it so I was ready to go.
It looks to me like there are wagon ruts to the left of that dirt road down there.
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| Zooming in. You never are 100% sure about these things, but from my chart, this is where the Trail is supposed to be, and I have some experience looking for wagon ruts. |
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| The trail is crossing some pretty barren country at this point. But it would have been relatively flat and navigable for the covered wagons. |
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I'm guessing that road goes where the old wagon trail went.
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| The ground is rising but the wagons had a flat path. |
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Now the ground is really rising up to that ridge which I believe is called the Bear River divide.
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Getting down from the Bear River Divide wouldn't have been easy, but once done, the settlers would have been in a nice flat valley following the Bear River to the north.
Those look like excellent ruts from lower left to upper right.
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| The Bear River heads north. |
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| Just to the west, on the other side of a ridge, was Bear Lake. So, of course, I had to bop over there and check it out. Lynnette and I once saw it from a car many, many yearas ago. I've never forgotten it. |
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Looking north.
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| Looking south. |
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Looking down.
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| It's always nice to see a little color after flying around the high desert for awhile. |
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| Following the southern shore counter-clockwise. |
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| Looking north again. Bear Lake is a nice shade of blue, isn't it? |
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I left Bear Lake, and headed east, to get back on the trail. I flew over this abandoned, single room house. I wonder what stories it could tell? It reminds me of that good old song " This Ole House" Rosemary Clooney sang. |
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These ruts wouldn't have been from the Oregon Trail. But there they are. Perhaps they were settlers who decided to give up on Oregon and give the Bear Lake area a try instead?
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| OK, back on the trail, heading north. I did fly this portion back in 2006. |
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| No ruts visible on this leg. But it is a safe assumption that the trail went the same way as the road and railroad track to the right of the river.. |
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| Trail, road and railroad track stayed on the flat land weaving amongst the hills. |
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There are some excellent ruts from lower left to upper right.
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| Another good section of ruts. |
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| Although faint, the trail is clearly visible from bottom to top. |
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| The trail is clearly visible at bottom but is then suddenly wiped out by cultivated field. |
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| Another example of seeing the trail, then suddenly it is gone, although in this case you can see very faint traces through the cultivated field. |
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The trrail is still staying close to the Bear River, which turns into Alexander Reservoir near Soda Springs.
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I thought it was interesting how the Bear River hugged the base of this rocky hill.
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| Another big, flat valley. |
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| Again, rising flat terrain leading to a pass over the ridge. |
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| Weaving through the hilly pass. |
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And on the other side: Pocatello, Idaho. But I was going to Blackfoot, which was 20 miles to the north of Pocatello.
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| I visited an old shipmate of mine from my Patrol Squadron VP-26 Navy days John Speck. We were on the same P-3 crew together. It was nice to meet his family for the first time. |
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