Wild West Day 22 October 12

Up early and out to Boot Hill, a reconstructed Wild West street on the site of the real Boot Hill Cemetery. It was a beautiful museum and a fitting way to say goodbye to the west:

We got the hell out of Dodge at 11:00!

As the wind was really battering us on Highway 56, inevitably a Wind Farm appeared!

We found our way to Fort Larned, a beautiful restoration and reconstruction of a fort that protected the Santa Fe Trail and was in operation from 1859 to 1869 and sold in 1884.

Afterwards, a private rancher owned the property, and the buildings, much of which was still standing when the National Parks Service acquired it in 1964. It's lovely. The best “modern” part is the graffiti on the stones from the turn of the 20^th century to the 60's when, apparently, people picnicked at the site:

Here are some pics of the site:

There was an eery moment for us when we were visiting the Company Officers' residence. First, there was a dead bird on a table in the back porch. THEN, I got spooked by the ticking clock (correct time):

THEN, as we were leaving, the front door slammed shut behind us (okay, it was windy, but...).

Luckily, we did get one last view of ruts of the Santa Fe Trail as we were leaving the site:

It was a VERY windy drive then (people kept saying “It IS Kansas!”).

Saw an “Alfalfa Seed” sign wrapped around a hay bale with a picture of “Alfalfa” sayng “Have a Hay Day”.

In Conway, KS, we started to see miles of oil wells.

We finally stopped driving and stayed in a WalMart in McPherson, KS.

Here's the (pretend) view from my chair, taken by David, the naughty boy (and it's a REAL view from the MH!):

Wild West Day 21 October 11

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 22^nd 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!):

Wild West Day 20 October 10

We're going to head east today; the homeward journey.

Started to see Pronghorns and Prairiedogs now that we were out of the mountains (though they were available to the eye off in the west).

Stopped at the Ludlow “Ghost Twon” (per CAA) which was in fact a memorial to the Ludlow Massacre of the 1913-14 Coal Mining Labour Strike (and Massacre). The memorial depicted the deaths of women, men and children as the Company burned down the tent city erected for stikers. More details are here http://www.umwa.org/?q=content/ludlow-massacre.

It was a lovely memorial and I felt a little sad as I walked around:

We started to notice a lot of llamas and alpacas in the fields. Not sure why.

We stopped in Trinidad for some information on the Santa Fe Trail (and two free ball caps) and headed east, the homeward journey.

In Tyrone, we saw the lines of short telegraph poles paralleling the railroad tracks and, often, new hydro poles (and occasionally mountains in the background):

There was now flat, flat land forever and ever.

We passed signs for PCMS and finally saw that this stood for the Pinon Maneuver Site where the US Army gets ready to fight (must simulate the desert???).

Some other sights included a beautiful hawk:

Some yellow “flowered” cactus (which David called yellow cactus hips, like rose hips since the flowers are actually now gone):

There were also strange zucchini-like vines in the ditches (wild):

We stopped at the Delhi One Stop store, an abandoned place with a stuffed toy inside the open door which led to a mess including an old Commodore PC!:

We saw a bunch of crows/ravens (I just call them cravens since I'm rarely sure which is which) which meant a kill (a deer by the railside) which led to two young coyotes ravaging the corpse. One left with a big chunk of meat. Missed the photo op (David had to drive; go figure).

In Iron Springs (a Santa Fe landmark), we saw an ingenious fence made with tree branches (and wire):

At the iron Springs Stage Site, we stopped and looked for ruts from the stage coaches. There was brick rubble and broken glass from the station and springs from an old buckboard. More importantly, we're sure we saw evidence of the Trail ruts; can YOU see them?:

We had lunch at Timpas, another stage site; it was 76 degrees and sunny, unlike the winter conditions we've been experiencing.

We had a lucky stop at Vogel Canyon, It was a little out of the way, but worth the drive. There was a picnic area (and a strange man in a beat-up Coachman who had been there for two weeks-free-and tripped and fell on his electric cord when he came to talk; might have been from the MANY beer cans he was holding).

There were several trails and we biked down to a series of rock paintings. The site is not super well maintained (one graffiti artist wrote LH). Can you see the images (and bullet holes, we think)?:

This is a REAL salamander:

We would have stayed there for the night but for the strange man. We tried the further Picket Wire Canyon but gave up after 10 miles on a dirt road and ended up in a Wal-Mart (for free).

A good day.

Here's the view from my (pretend...it IS a parking lot) chair: