The Oregon Trail in Oregon
The day started once again with Canned Heat blaring throughout the car. We all woke up, got ready, and went inside the Flyin’ J to get some breakfast. We got some cinnamon rolls for the group and I got a 6-inch Subway sandwich. We finished breakfast, filled the van up, and headed west towards Boardman, Oregon.
We made a stop in Glen Ferry, Idaho, to view the Oregon Trail State Park. This is the point in the Oregon Trail where they had to make the decision to cross the Snake River (making an easier trek North) or to stay South (making it a lot harder). We stopped at a little monument to read some plaques and take a few pictures. We saw a wagon that was used to go to Pennsylvania in 1975 to honor the bicentennial year of the United States. We carried on and went to the visitor’s center.
In the visitor’s center there wasn’t much to see with only the bathrooms and the gift shop open. We looked around for a little bit and headed out to Flagstaff Hill in Oregon. On the way to Flagstaff Hill we made a couple of stops, one for lunch and one to see the blue football field at Boise State University.
The stop for lunch was right outside of Boise, Idaho, at a Oregon Trail State Park. We looked around for a park bench or a good place to sit, and we could not find one. We decided the best place was to sit was in the car. We had a quick lunch that consisted of peanut butter, Nutella, and jelly sandwiches. After a quick lunch we were back on our way. The next stop was to drive by the Boise State University football stadium. With a quick detour through the city, we got up close but could not see the field. As we drove by, I got a very quick glance at a very small part of the field. After that we continued on.
Next stop was Flagstaff Hill, which was an Oregon Trail museum stop on our list. Before we got to the top of the mountain we stopped and looked at a quick monument on the side of one of the hills. It was a monument to honor the people that made the many thousand mile journey to start a new life in Oregon. After taking some pictures and reading some plaques, he headed up to the top of the hill to the museum.
We reached the entrance and were met with a polling place. With luck on our side, it was closed and we got in for free. We drove up the big hill to the top to see the beautiful view of the Blue Mountains. We got out of the car and the first thing we did was climb on top of some covered wagons sitting out in front of the building. We took some pictures and headed inside to view the museum. First walking in, we were greeted by two gentlemen working the front counter. They told us about the self guided tour. They gave us a pamphlet and sent us on our way. Walking around the large museum, we followed the self guided tour. It began with small plaques with quotes of people who had done the long journey. Plaques mentioned how excited people were to start their new lives out west. As we continued on we learned the backstory on how the trail became the Oregon Trail.
With learning everything we could in the short few minutes, we were in the starting section where we began the tour. It first started with information on St. Joseph and Independence, Missouri, the starting cities of the Trail. From there as the tour went along it took us to all of their stops and everything they had to go through to get to Oregon. The tour lasted us a little longer than an hour and a half. We were all amazed with the museum. With the tour behind us, we decided to head to the spot for that night: a Flyin’ J about two hours away. We piled in the van and headed out. We started the drive to Stanfield, Oregon.
As we pulled into town, we saw there was a Walmart only a short drive from us. We continued to the Walmart to get a little bit more food for the coming days. In Walmart we grabbed chicken breasts (to grill the following night), lunch meat, and Pop Tarts. After grabbing these supplies we headed back to the Flyin’ J to make dinner. Once we got there, we got out our small camp stove and started heating the soup. Tonight we had gumbo, which was our favorite a couple of nights ago in Grand Teton National Park. While eating dinner we watched a few comedy shows on YouTube to have a little entertainment. Dinner was finished and we packed up to go to sleep.
The time to sleep came and we parked in one of the side lots for the people staying overnight. As we were getting ready for bed, we noticed some stuff that did not sit right with us. Ben was in the back sleeping, Reed and I were sitting in the front seats. We both looked at each other with uneasy looks and decided to wait a couple minutes and decide if we wanted to drive another 30 minutes at 10:30 PM after a long day of traveling. We went with our gut feeling and decided to go to a Pilot gas station a half hour down the highway near Boardman, Oregon. A couple miles down the highway we both felt a lot better and knew we made the right decision. We pulled into the Pilot, got ready for bed and then slept. Knowing what we had done and what was going to come I was happy laying down. I was excited to reach our final destination: Portland, Oregon. I knew that day and through the rest of the trip that I would have no regrets!!
