Martin's Cove, WY

We have been planning this trip for awhile with a few members of Bryan's family and amazingly enough we actually pulled through with it.  My brother in law Cory needed some help with a shed my father in law built for him so we left early Friday morning to help. 

 My little boys loved playing with their baby chicks.

 Wyoming is windy!  But we did enjoy a beautiful sunset at the end of the day.  My boys just played and played while we were there.  They are in heaven playing with their cousins.

 My older boys went over and caught crawdads by Cory's house.   Bryan showed them how to cook them up and eat them.  None for me thanks...

                                                                          Martin's Cove

We have never been on the pioneer trek.  Our ward had gown twice since we lived here but never thought it sounded fun with little babies.  We didn't do any overnight stuff, just the day hike.  We woke up early Saturday and made the long drive across Wyoming to Martins cove.  

We decided on only getting one handcart and with the wind that day it was a great idea.  To pull the handcart into Martin's cove was hard!  We had Cory's older three kids pulling in the front for most of it and Ty helped a little too.  Blake and Luke pushed from the back a little but then let go so I helped for awhile. When the wind would gust it was really hard to push.  It's hard to tell from the pictures how windy it was but I did get a video of how crazy the grass was moving in the wind.  Wyoming is always windy like I said.  I can't imagine how horrible the wind would be in the winter for those poor pioneers. 

Brett was scared to ride in the cart at first but after a few minutes thought it was fantastic.  We pulled Stockton and Brett in the cart on the way there.  

To actually hike into the cove we had to leave our cart and walk in. 

 These are actually from the walk out but I'm tired of moving pictures around so oh well.  You get the idea.

 I have a little story.  Bryan and most of the family got a little bit ahead of Katie, Abby, Stockton and I. It was a few mile hike and to go into to Martin's cove it was a little harder.  Stockton wanted me to carry him in and I was really tired.  I kept asking him to walk and he kept freaking out so I finally picked him up.  It hit me while I was struggling to carry him in about the poor mothers with frozen feet and bodies trying to carry their little kids in snow through the same area.  Here I was in nice tennis shoes, on a nice warm day put out that I had to carry Stockton a few blocks.  I just hugged him a little closer grateful I won't have to do that.

My in laws did the trek with their ward a few years ago so they told us some stories when we got back in there.  The wind had mostly stopped and you could understand why they camped here for a few days away from the wind.  When they bring youth groups in they ask them not to talk and just sit and be reverent.  It's hard to explain the feeling there.  It's very much a reverence and holiness you feel there when you think about those pioneers. It actually kind of bothered me for a few days that people who were trying to obey gods command to gather with the rest of the saints had to give so much to get there.  Couldn't God stay the winds and the snow for them?  Couldn't he have blessed them with the means to be ready on time so they wouldn't have left so late and been caught in the storm?  It's occurred to me since then that God really allows us our freedom to choose even if the choices might be hard for us. But he also will help and bless us along the way.  The whole handcart company really should have died in the situation they were in.  It was horrible!  Many did die but through God's grace a lot lived.  It still brings tears to my eyes to think of the mothers who had to burry their children or husbands under the snow only to hear wolves coming to rip apart the bodies.  They would wake up to find family members frozen to death and they were all starving.  I just can't even grasp the feelings those early saints had.  

Abby and Blake around the area where they had to dig a mass grave for family members who died.  

 Martin's cove was an amazing experience and I would recommend going.

The picture on the right is of Devi's gate.   

The total walk we did was around 5 miles.  

Independence Rock

We were only a few minutes away from independence rock and since I really love the Oregon trail part of American history I really wanted to see it. 

 I hiked to the top after Bryan took Blake up.  I'm not even sure I can describe the wind at the top of this thing! I bet it was gusting to like 80MPH seriously.  You would try to talk and the spit from your mouth would start going up your cheek.  You could lean into it and it would hold you up.  It was awesome! And the view was amazing!

 View from the top.  I wonder how different it is now from when pioneers 160 or so years ago stood at the top.

There is a spot around the side where you can see some names carved into the rock.  I don't know if there are any really from pioneer times or if they are all more recent but it was cool to see it.