A mid-summer sunset casts a golden glow on the clouds above the high elevation prairie lands in modern-day Wyoming. Some summers the grasses may be green, but usually the grasses provided only meager forage for the traveler’s livestock. This part of the trail is a thousand rugged miles from Nauvoo. The hardships along the trail weighed heavy on most of the travelers. “Sometimes for miles could be seen, feather beds, blankets, quilts, and clothing of every kind strewed over the plains, also wagon tires and irons of every description, gun barrels, stoves, etc. etc. The bottom of the Sweetwater was also lined with wagon tires, chains and other irons. And fresh graves could be seen in every direction.” – Samuel Gifford, 1864