July 24th mini trek in Wyoming

So this past weekend McKay and I were invited by his dad on a "mini" blast to the past in honor of the 24th of July. He was planning on following the mormon pioneers trail from Wyoming to Salt Lake City and then stop at a few significant sites along the way. I was pretty nervous at what this all involved since I had just ran 15 miles the day before and wasn't up for very much intense hiking. But luckily it was more driving than walking and the sites that he took us to were very cool. Since I was little I have been interested in our pioneer heritage and I love hearing stories and reading books about the pioneers and the amazing trials that they overcame. So this trip was definitely worth every minute of it. Also along with following the trail we had fun carpooling with Jesse and Natalie from logan, sleeping out under the stars in their backyard (I didn't really love this part and only got about three hours of sleep that night, but I guess it increased my respect for the pioneers), going garage saling on Saturday (I am beginning to love these), and a relaxing barbaque prepared by McKay's sisters saturday night(thanks girls!). Overall it was a really fun summer weekend spent with family. Ok now enough of my talking, here are the pictures...
This first one is of us at our first stop at Brigham Young's Arrow that he created just north of Evanston to help direct the saints in which direction they should go. It is located on private property so not many people have the chance to see it, but luckily McKay's family is in the guy's ward so they got special permission. :)

These next ones are of the whole trekin crew standing in front of the arrow.

After the arrow we drove past these HUGE windmills that are on this man's property too and since we were SO close we couldn't help take pictures of them too.

Our next stop was at a part of the trail that was near Muddy Creek crossing and then after we visited it we actually drove to Muddy creek campground and ate a fun picnic. Here are a few pictures from that trail. I was amazed at how steep it was and I almost slipped myself and I didn't even have a huge wagon train with me!
Later on down the trail we stopped by some old kilns that had been used to make charcoal from wood. They obviously weren't there when the pioneers crossed the plans but were created later.

Then after the kilns we were all beat so we just headed back to their house and had dinner and naps. No we did not actually make it to the Salt Lake Valley, but we had tons of fun talking and telling pioneer stories. And for me I had had not seen as many of the pioneer sights in Wyoming so it was a great lesson for me.
And last but not least after dinner we headed over to Bear River State Park for a relaxing walk and to check out the wild life. It was a beautiful way to end the weekend :)



Thanks for reading and hope everyone had a great Pioneer Day! Here are a couple last pictures for you of us eating some of the amazing fruit that McKay's family fed us while we were there, seriously in one weekend we ate Cherries, blueberries, raspberries, apricots, watermellon, and cantalope YUM!