Oregon Trail: Devil's Backbone Traditional Cache
High-Plains-Drifter: Fun while it lasted!!
Oregon Trail: Devil's Backbone
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The cache is a small camouflaged plastic container. It contains a log only so bring your own writing utensil. The cache is located near the road, but requires some rock-climbing. It is pretty well hidden among the rocks.
Take Natrona County Rd. 319. This is very remote country. There are no residences along the way nor any traffic should you need assistance. It also can be very muddy at times. Travel with appropriate back-country awareness.
Devil’s Backbone is a sandstone outcropping that spans for miles across the prairie. It wasn’t much of an obstacle to the travelers on the Oregon Trail, but it was an oddity and consequently it was mentioned in many diaries. I have no idea how it was formed, but I’m not much of a geologist. I’m lucky to know that it’s sandstone. There are beautiful views of the prairie from the top of the backbone and several markers of the original trail placed by the Oregon/California Trail Association (OCTA) along the way.
There were numerous names and dates carved in the soft stone during the nineteenth century migration west. Several years ago acid rain began speeding up the erosion process and it was decided by state archeologists to preserve these names and others for prosperity. The project involved using massive portable rock saws and removing large slabs of rock containing the names from the face of the rock. It is my understanding that the project was somewhat successful and many of the slabs are on display at the American Heritage Center at UW. Unfortunately many of the slabs were broken in the process and now those names are lost forever. Evidence of this project can easily be seen in several places along the east face of the backbone. Nearly everything is eroded away on the west face, but if you do some exploring you can still find a few names in the nooks and crannies along the east face.
This is the Wyoming prairie and a popular residence of rattlesnakes, scorpions and ticks. There are also numerous cacti. Consequently, watch out for things that can stick, sting, or bite you while exploring in the area.
Congratulations to Wyomingguy for First to Find!!!
Happy Trails!!!
Drifter
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Treasures
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