South Pass, Wyoming

After more than 50 peaks over 13,000 feet high, the Wind River Range peters out at its southern end near Lander, Wyoming, eventually reaching a level of 7,550 feet, where a pass over the Continental Divide became a historic throughway known as South Pass. The pass was a pinch point for westward migrations, where the California Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Oregon Trail, and the Pony Express trail converged. South Pass was used as an immigrant trail as early as the 1820s, but it was Charles Fremont who publicized it in the account of his expedition in 1842, citing it as one of the easiest ascents over the Divide, which led to many thousands using it over the following decades. The original, historic South Pass is a dirt road a couple miles south of where the modern highway crosses the Divide, scattered with a few interpretive plaques and monuments, but rarely visited. For today’s travelers over the pass, on Highway 28, there is a roadside rest at the pass.