I was looking forward to seeing Independence Rock since I set out on this trip. For one reason or another Chimney and Independence Rocks have been the most iconic symbols of the Trail since I was a kid. Entrance to the rock is found at the edge of a rest stop parking lot in what feels like the absolute middle of nowhere Wyoming. I read that the names of pioneering wagon trains could still be seen carved into the highest rock so I climbed the couple hundred feet or so to the top of the rock. This drawing comes from a view of that climb, looking West over grazing land out to where spiky protrusions hint at the looming Rockies.

From the National Park Service Website:

An oval outcrop of granite rock, it is 1,900 feet long, 700 feet wide, and rises 128 feet above the range. The rock derived its name from a party of fur trappers who camped there and celebrated Independence Day in their own style on July 4, 1830. Independence Rock became one of the great bulletin boards of the Oregon-California Trail-a place to look for word of friends ahead or leave messages for those coming behind. On July 26, 1849, J. Goldsborough Bruff “reached Independence Rock . . . at a distance looks like a huge whale. It is being painted & marked every way, all over, with names, dates, initials, &c – so that it was with difficulty I could find a place to inscribe it.”

Today, a highway rest area provides parking and interpretive wayside exhibits. The sure-footed can still climb to the top of the rock to inspect emigrant names that were placed there 150 years ago.