Overview

The family in this story needed to move from Boise, Idaho, to Boulder, Colorado. They had four horses and a wagon, for which they made a canvas cover. Because they felt it would be safer not to travel on the road that automobiles used, they traveled the same wagon route that the pioneers had used about seventy-five years before. The pioneers were traveling west on what was called the Oregon Trail. This family was using the same path to travel the opposite direction. Along the way they met cowboys, sheep herders, cattlemen, and farmers who made the trip interesting for the children. Their horses pulled the wagon over the rough and rutted road that had not been good to start with and was now worn down by many years of use with no road crews keeping it in repair. What should they do when they found a washed out bridge? What did the children find to do on this l-o-n-g camping trip? Would their family reach Colorado before the winter's storm made travel by wagon impossible?