Heritage Gateways

Brent C (B.C.) Moore Journals

July 14, 1997

Location: Yellow Creek, Wyoming - Between Bear River crossing and Castle Rock.

Summary: Bear River to Yellow Creek -- Cold morning, hot afternoon

Journal entry: It was freezing (almost) this morning as we left camp. I had an extra sweatshirt plus a blanket wrapped around me, and I was still cold. You'd think it's January. Soon we turned off the highway and onto a steep dirt road. That was all it took to get warmed up. Soon we were busy pulling and singing, "For some must push and some must pull as we go marching up the hill." We descended into a plush green valley. It was great. Most of the time we were walking on green grass in meadows.

I misplaced my boots, so I walked in my sunday shoes for a few miles until we reached grass. At that point, I didn't even hesitate -- I was immediately shoeless. It was heaven. And, I wasn't the only one. I counted five or six people doing the same thing. I can see why many pioneers didn't mind walking without shoes. Once you build up some callouses, the only thing you have to do is wipe an occasional pricker off the bottom of your feet. After a few hours our fun ended, and we reached a gravel road. On went the shoes, and we kept on going towards the Needles.

The Needles are some crumbling rock formations near Yellow Creek. They rise up like spires, and some locals claim that Brigham Young used them as an inspiration for the spires on the Salt Lake temple. The locals also say that years ago, the spires were 15 feet taller than they are now. The trail becomes steep and curvey there, and we had to wait almost an hour for the wagons to go over that section. When we got there, we breezed through without much problems. Handcarts are great in that respect -- they can go just about anywhere you can pull them.

Our campsite was just around the corner, and we had all afternoon to rest and even go into Evanston to shower and play water polo at the pool. I wonder if the pioneers knew how to play water polo?

All is well.