Fall colors at the top of Squaw Peak behind Provo.
The Fort Bridger trading post. Used as a stopover for the Mormon pioneers and later acquired by them for restocking wagons coming through on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails west. Also served as a Pony Express stop.
Great opportunity to visit with my sister Karen and her husband Jim in Cheyenne. We hadn't seen them in over a year.
Handcart pioneers at Winter Quarters, where Omaha is now located. 2,962 Mormon handcart pioneers crossed 1,300 miles of plains and mountains between 1856 and 1860 to secure a place where they could worship freely. Tragically, almost 250 died along the way. They were the first of almost 57,000 (!) to cross the plains from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake valley over the next 10 years.
Trying my hand at pulling a hand cart...my great, great grandfather Jens Poulsen might not have been impressed by my staying power!
Karen checking out her next new car. Actually, wagons such as this were the mainstay of cross-plains travel until the trans-continental railroad was completed in 1869. Jens Poulsen and his family used this means of transportation. Emigrating from Denmark in 1862, he lost his wife and three children to shipboard illness, and the family (including his brother and sister's families)lost several more members along the Mormon Trail. He has always been a great example to me for his faith and endurance.
The Liberty jail in Independence, Missouri. Joseph Smith and five other church leaders were incarcerated unjustly for almost five months in the lower cell, with 4 ft thick walls, barely enough headroom to stand, and horrific sanitation and food. The Lord told Joseph that "...all these things shall give thee experience, and it shall be for thy good." Now THAT'S a refiner's fire.
Far West, Missouri. Once a city of almost 5000 church members who been driven out of Independence by vengeful mobs. Now a beautiful dedicated temple site with the four cornerstones laid.
Karen's presence greatly enhanced the experience, as always.
Site of the Haun's Mill Massacre. It's haunting to recall that 17 men, women and children were killed by an angry mob at this location. 
A serene view of the valley from Adam-ondi-Ahman.
"Preachers Rock", where it is said that Joseph Smith gave many sermons. It's fun and edifying to immerse ourselves in a part of church history we had not previously experienced. Tomorrow we will head northeast to Nauvoo, Illinois.
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