The ferry across the North Platte made its slow, rope-pulled traverse of six to eight feet of cold mountain water,

Scotts Bluff was visible from a long way east, the same flat country that had made Courthouse Rock and Chimney

They came upon the Guernsey Ruts without warning. They were not visible from a distance the way the great landmarks

Chimney Rock appeared on the western horizon the morning after they left Courthouse Rock. Not the dark mass that Courthouse

The approach to Fort Laramie was the most heavily trafficked ground on the entire trail, the confluence of multiple weeks’

From where Maya stood the land stretched out for miles. The terrain was deceptive. What looked like open, navigable grassland