Following the Santa Fe Trail (Old Fort Bent to Fort Larned)
August 30th
This morning we woke up early to a beautiful blue sky. I was actually too warm in my sleeping bag last night (the low was only around 60F.) We were on the road by 8:00 and arrived at Old Fort Bent around 8:30. Fort Bent was a trading post along the Santa Fe Trail (which connects Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico via Kansas and Colorado.) It was actually fortified with walls on all sides and was constructed from adobe. European Americans, Mexicans and Native Americans all traded here. In the early days it was beaver pelts and later it was primarily buffalo hides. The original fort was destroyed in a fire so what we saw was a reconstruction that was completed in the 1970s.
From Old Fort Bent, we left Colorado and started the long drive across Kansas. As we got lower in elevation, the temperature increased to a high of 99F today. This was the hottest weather we’ve had so far on the trip. After four hours of driving, we arrived at Fort Larned, another point on the Santa Fe Trail. However, this fort was a military outpost built to protect traders on the trail from Indian attack. The style was completely different (this time the buildings were set around a square but with fortifying walls and resembled some of the other western forts we’ve visited. I marveled that these forts (now historic sites) serve some of the same purpose today, acting as a stopping off/resting point for travelers crossing the country. We were a little bit ahead of schedule and decided to continue driving another hour or so before stopping for the night. We finally stopped in McPherson, Kansas, an “oil town.” The only two campgrounds in the GPS were RV parks, so I called one, “the RV Ranch and Horse Hotel” and asked if they had a site we could pitch a tent. They let us pitch our tent in a big grassy field next to a lake for $10, a pretty good deal.
Posted from Williamsburg, VA
Tags: BIG TRIP 2011, Colorado FR, In English 2005-2006, Kansas
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