The Halfway Point

The Pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail from the 1840s - the 1860s didn't have GPS and for those early trips, they barely had maps!
What they did have are mile markers.  No, not the ones we have today along side the highway, but they had all natural landmarks that they could use to guage their direction, how far they've come and to help others that come along behind them. 
Just like being at Ft. Laramie on the fourth of July was an important date for me, reaching some of these other landmarks were equally worth celebrating. 
The halfway point for the Oregon Trail, is agreed upon my most to be Independence Rock. 
This spot is in the middle of nothingness of Wyoming.  There are huge, beautiful bluffs and buttes pushing up from the ground and settling in with such character and raw elegance, but then there's this one, that kind of sets out on it's own.  It's somewhat smooth and if you look at it in just the right way, it resembles an elephant that lay down to take a nap.  You can only see it's back, but it's unmistakable. 

And... I have reached it.

So, the folks that decided to name this beast Independence Rock, did so because it's where THEY decided to stop to celebrate the birth of our nation.  which means they completely missed out on all the fun at Ft. Laramie, but... who am I to judge?  Lol. 
This became a signature point as well.  This rock, however is hard granite, so unless they were willing to get out the tools to carve their name in deep, most just fell back on grease to paint their name.  Sadly, most of those have washed away from the weather and time.  There is an interesting collection of names still visible at one end of the rock which has since been protected with fencing, and plaques have been hung here as well.  
It's SO cool to see, I still get goosebumps writing about it.
I was going to climb to the top, but was only wearing my flip-flops.  Not good climbing shoes.  Although, if it was cool enough a barefoot climb would have been possible.  It was not, however cool enough.
And I found out later that there are a ton more names carved on top.  Had I known that then, I probably would have made a greater effort to dig out my tennis shoes. 

In spite of that, here I am... at the halfway point.  My trip to Oregon is half over.  I am both excited and quite sad.  It always just seem to go so fast, even though I'm striving to make distance, I don't want it to be over.

---