Our next stop on our impromptu visit east of I-25 in Wyoming was the Register Cliffs. We had spent a long, loud, hot, buggy night at a trail parking lot after visiting Fort Laramie. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when we realized that Guernsey, WY is home to the National Guard. We laid down to sleep that night and just as we were about to fall asleep the 'thud, thud, thud' of helicopter rotors cut the silence. That sound persisted well into the night-- it was so loud you could feel it. I felt bad for myself and even worse for those service members working all night long. At one point I just looked out the trailer window into the darkness and laughed. When we had pulled over we were under the impression that this was a very peaceful place. The irony was just too much. It reminded us of our first night in our rental house in Coupeville, WA, when the first Prowler flew overhead and I realized what it meant to 'live in the flight path'. Inconvenient or not, there's just something impressive about the sound of freedom. Anyway, I digress. In the morning, we saw a sign for the Register Cliffs less than a mile away. And, since we had spent the night in a parking lot (lol....we ARE just like my parents!!) we had the chance to talk to some people about what the cliffs were and decided to head there before making the turn up north. This stop was not a "wow" excursion but more of a "holy cow" one. When you combine the experience of the Oregon trail ruts with the thousands of names carved into the sandstone on the Register Cliff, you stop and think about all the lives behind the names. I think I would have liked history a lot more as a child had we taken more field trips because seeing these tangible parts of history truly does make it come alive.
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| (Double click the image to see it bigger if you want to read the sign.) |
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| Look at the layer upon layer of carved names. |
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| See all of the swallow nests? |
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| A new furry friend to complete the experience. |
