Friday, August 28 - Bee Sting in a Ghost Town and "The Great Record of the Desert"

Owl Creek Campground is well-named.  We heard owls in the morning.  Two mornings in a row!  I think I found the tree it was in, but never saw the owl.    They even have an owl totem pole.

We took down camp after showering in the bathrooms that had an overpowering cinnamon scent...not pleasant.  Then we got in the car, got on the highway, and I looked to see what the car light said.  2wd, no "service" light!  Whew!  But then I wasn't sure if it would come back. 

Owl Creek Campground - Our Site

We headed into Riverton, with the beautiful view of the  Wind River Mountains on our right. 

We began seeing signs for "Sand Creek Massacre". I stopped for coffee and splurged on donuts too.  Then we took back roads, headed for the Wind River Reservation town of Washakie.  Outside of town is the supposed burial place of Sacagawea.  I had been to another supposed burial spot of hers back in late June, right next to Sitting Bull's, but this seems to be the more accepted spot.  We reached Washakie and didn't have very good directions for the burial stie so we headed south.  Eventually we realized we were on the wrong track so we went back north and used my phone to google better directions.  We finally discovered the site is actually 14 miles east of Washakie, towards the mountains.  We headed that direction but after about 4 miles the paved road turned to gravel.  Due to yesterday's issues with  the car and the 4WD light, we decided it would be unwise to attempt to go out there.  We had no idea if there was anything else out that way, we could break down 10 miles out towards the mountains and be stuck with no help, no one around, and no cell phone signal.  We turned back, as much as I hated to.  She is supposedly buried there with her son.

We headed back to Washakie and stopped at the old town cemetary where Chief Washakie is buried.  He was a Shoshone chief who had been a warrior but cooperated with and was friendly and helpful to white settlers in later years (see yesterday's entry for more information).

We headed south again, with a stop for a few groceries in Lander, and then towards South Pass City, an almost ghost town on the Continental Divide south of the Wind Rivers, on the edge of Wyoming's Red Desert. It's an old mining town and the Oregon Trail also crossed the divide near here, an easy Continental Divide crossing compared to others, due to it's low elevation.  On the way, we passed Red Canyon and some Wind River Range scenery.

We took the first road to South Pass City off the highway, and it goes much farther on gravel, through another old ghost town called Atlantic City.  We finally reached South Pass City after about 25 minutes later.  We parked and began our tour of the old buildings and sites.

 Logan ran back to the car to get something while the rest of us looked at the old school house site

Old Schoolhouse Foundation

and through the windows of another old building.    Logan caught up with us on the boardwalk outside that building and suddenly started to cry...he had gotten stung by a bee, on the cheek.  This was not good. Logan has a strange bee allergy...he gets extreme localized swelling.  The doctors have told us that the most dangerous thing for him would be to get stung in the face or neck, because he would then possibly swell up so much that his breathing would be cut off.  Because of this, and after a few extreme reactions, we now carry benadryl, prednisone and an eip-pen.  This was the first sting since we started carrying the prednisone with us (we had previously only gotten it after urgent care visits).  I yelled to Rosie and Jack to go ahead and look at a few more things and be back at the car in 5 minutes, and Logan and I rushed to the car.  I hadn't made him carry the kit with him because it was windy and cool and I just didn't expect bees up there.  We got him the prednisone and benadryl, had the epi-pen out and ready, and got him some ice.  I gave him ibruprofen too because it really hurt.  Rosie and Jack came back and were getting in the car when  a man walked by and commented that one of my tires was almost flat!  How could that be?  Those of you who know about my saga last summer know I ended up with 4 heavy duty brand new tires!  I somehow stayed calm and explained the situation.  He took us to a maintenance type building across the road and there was someone there (they must maintain the roads) who had an air compressor.  They filled the tire with air and said they didn't hear it leaking out so we should be able to make it into Lander and told us where to go.  We hurriedly took the quicker route to pavement, with Rosie and I checking the swelling on Logan's face every 3 minutes.   I am a worrier and panicker much of the time but I did stay calm and drove safely...I didn't want to go too  fast, due to the tire issue, but didn't dare go too slow either.  It took us almost an hour I think, to get back to Lander.  Logan's face was somewhat swollen but because we'd gotten him meds within 5 minutes of the sting, I think we caught it in time and he didn't get the extreme swelling. 

The tire place couldn't fit us in for an hour so I had them call another place, and they were busy too...so, no choice but to just wait.  We were going to walk to a park to make our sandwiches but there were so many bees around, we didn't dare.  I made sandwiches at the car (and killed 3 yellow jackets in 8 minutes) and we ate at a table inside the convenience store attached to the tire place.  Luckily they rushed our car in and  in 25 minutes we were ready to go.  There had been a screw in the tire, we must have picked it up on the road to the ghost town.  He assured me I could drive 100,000 miles on it now, it was patched.

I am so grateful for the people who helped us up in South Pass City but I have to wonder...if we went back, would they really be there or would it be one of those cases of "phantom helpers showing up when you need them"?  This situation could have been so awful, if Logan had reacted worse and we'd had a flat on the gravel road and no help for a while.  What would I have done?  It's very scary.    I need to talk to his doctor again about carrying extra epi-pens  and what we do if we were backpacking or something and he was stung in the face or neck. 

We left Lander and hoped to not return again at least until next summer (meaning we hoped for no more car problems or medical issues), and turned onto Hwy. 287.  This road roughly parallels the route of the Oregon Trail as it went along and near the Sweetwater River.  We stopped at Devil's Gate, an opening in the rocks that the trail followed at one point. 

We also saw Devil's Gate:

We were watching for Independence Rock...one of my favorite memories from going "out West" as a child was climbing all over this rock.    It looks like a huge boulder rising from the plains and it was an important landmark on the Oregon Trail. 

It has always been a place for travelers to stop and record their passage...pictographs have been found, fur traders signed it, many Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail pioneers signed it, etc.  You can climb all over the rock and look for the oldest signatures you can find.  Various inventories have been taken over the years, listing them all.  Not all are still visible.

We were of course on the lookout for the rattlesnakes that love to sun themselves on the rock, and we had brought St. Patrick (the gift from my friend Judith) along to keep us safe. 

Jack and Saint Patrick

We did see one small very cute snake (you read that right...he was a very cute snake!)  but it wasn't a rattlesnake, and he was terrified of us.  Still, keeping two ambitious climbers safe on a snake infested rock was a lot of responsibility.  Rosie was very cautious.  We zig-zagged straight up and over the rock basically, and ended up on the Eastern side. 

Prospect Hill in the Distance

1849 Signature

The boys and I wanted to take a path that went South and around the rock.  Rosie thought going north was quicker and she didn't like the looks of the Southern route.   She refused to walk it.  I told her if she didn't she would have to go the other way by herself, trying to teach her that her "tantrum" wasn't going to work.  She said "OK!".  So I gave her St. Patrick and she took off the other direction, saying she'd meet us at the car.  There were a lot of older couples around and I felt like she was safe.  In hindsight maybe I shouldn't have let her.


The boys and I went on our Southern jaunt and enjoyed it immensely.  We saw lots of rabbits and interesting rock formations, etc. 

Oregon Trail Ruts at Independence Rock

Path Around the Rock

On the other side, we found the old cemetary I remembered from when I was little...I remembered this old graveyard surrounded by a black wrought iron fence,

but when we went back in 2003 we didn't find it.  I was happy to know it wasn't one of those childhood memories that didn't really happen.

When we got back, Rosie was  reading signs and had beaten us by a half hour.  She was very happy with her decision.

© 2009 Tara Morrison