We continue on the Santa Fe Trail.
We headed to Bent's Old Fort past cantaloupe fields in La Junta. I mean fields and fields of them. Interesting means of growing with black plastic/rubber of some kind. They were picking it up (some cantaloupe on the ground, but must have already been harvested).
Sadly, the fort wasn't open yet (see, I could have slept another half hour).
We went to Boggsville, the first unsecured town in the area. It's a Kit Carson place (he's everywhere here). Looks like some local historians attempted to preserve and show this little town, but it was closed and looked like things have stalemated. But it was nice for what they've done AND really commemorated three strong women who were at the basis of the place http://www.sangres.com/history/boggsvillewomen.htm:
Despite the incomplete restoration, there was a "Parade of Trees" marking the path of the Santa Fe Trail in to Boggsville (and you can see the ruts):
We tried to see the Fort Lyon Historical site, Kit Carson Chapel and national Naval Cemetary, but it was also the Correctional Facility, so we moved on.
Starting in Wiley, we started to see (and smell) these huge cattle feed lots. This one had 25,000 cattle (we learned later). We're miles of feeding cattle.
Next stop was Camp Amache, a WW II Japanese Internment camp. It was quiet, rather eery, and the story made me sad http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/wwcod/granada.htm:
At 12:27, we hit Cassie's 22nd state: Kansas!
More and more giant cattle feedlots in Kansas, along with the first oil wells in days.
We had lunch at Chouteau's Island Historical marker, another spot on the Trail.
In Holcomb, we drove by the HUGE Tyson plant (it's a beef plant; go figure with all the feedlots).
We next spent some time at the Santa Fe Trail Ruts outside Dodge City. It's exciting to find the traces of the wagon wheels:
We ended up in Dodge City for the night at the Watersports Campground ($20.10).
Here's the view from my chair (and you can make out the dry lake, so no watersports for us!):
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