Our trip across the country from North Carolina to Wyoming was mostly just travel time, followed by school time, followed by travel time...rinse and repeat. While our brief stop in St. Louis was all too brief it allowed us a nice break from the motorhome to stay, visit and eat pizza with my college roommate, Mia. Pushing onwards, we arrived in Casper, Wyoming on Saturday. This was our first big stop and first of many adventures yet to come.
Historic Trails West was a stop I found on Harvest Hosts. If you have not heard of Harvest Hosts, it is a membership based company that generally lists free, overnight dry camping sites. The hosts are anyone from private farm owners, to vinyards, breweries, golf courses and museums, to name a few. I see that John Schneider (aka Bo Duke) is a host under this program!! The hosts provide a level, dry camping site and ask for little in return, except maybe a small donation or purchase from the host. Membership is around $90 a year and well worth it in my opinion.
Historic Trails West was a bit of an exception. They offered free camping for clients who booked a trail ride. Not an inexpensive camping option, but one that I thought would offer a wonderful opportunity to not only see Wyoming a bit closer, but to learn about westward expansion and the history of the US. We were not disappointed.
We met up at the National Historic Trails Museum where we were escorted about 30 minutes out of town, to a campsite along the Oregon Trail. There you could see the ruts, still many feet deep in parts, of the wagon trains that journeyed across the US in hopes of a better life in the West.
Our trail ride took us along the Oregon Trail and down to the North Platte River crossing. Here we dismounted at camp for a wonderful campsite meal made over open fires in cast iron dutch ovens. The boys loved the biscuits and beans but nothing could beat the warm peach cobbler served as dessert.
We rode back to our motorhome as the sun was setting over the hills of Casper. That night we camped under the huge Wyoming sky, out along the Oregon Trail. The boys were overjoyed with the experience.
