Summer trip #1

Our first summer trip of 2011 was to Wyoming. I konw, doesn't sound too exciting but we actually had a really good time. It was mostly a church history trip. We went to see Independence Rock, Devils Gate, the Sweetwater River, and Martins Cove. Before we went, we had our kids do little research papers on these 4 location. They shared what they had learned for Family Home Evening. Since they had learned about these places before hand, they were all really excited to see them in person. It was like a mini-trek. We left our house early Friday morning. It took about 5 hours to get to our hotel and another hour to get to our first stop...
Bryan's great-great-great grandfather Perigrine Sessions carved his name in Independence Rock. We walked around the whole thing and couldn't find it. We did see many other names including this one...

Our next stop was The Martin's Cove visitors center. We picked out a handcart and trekked to Martin's Cove. While in the Cove, the Missionary there read us the story of Bryan's great-great-great grandmother Sarah Crossley. She was a member of the Martin handcart company. If you'd like, you can read her story here.
We really couldn't do much with the Sweetwater River. It was spilling over it's banks while we were there from all the rain we had been getting. We did walk on a trail next to it and crossed a bridge over it, but we weren't able to get in to cross it.

The last place we saw was Devils Gate. It's where the Sweetwater river carved a cleft in the rocks. Many pioneers traveling west would stop here to climb around the rocks. After finishing up at the Visitors Center, we drove back to our hotel, swam in the pool, and slept. The next day we visited an old prison in the town we were staying in and then drove home. Like I said, short and sweet, and well worth it.