Yoder’s Hadley Thompson capped off a terrific week of rodeo with three world titles on Saturday at the National High School Finals Rodeo (NHSFR) in Rock Springs. Thompson won two events and the highly coveted world all-around championship for cowgirls, a year after being the reserve all-around cowgirl. Thompson won the gold buckle in the breakaway roping and the goat tying, and that carried her to the all-around.

Thompson recorded the fastest time of the week in the championship short go of the breakaway roping when she stopped the clock at 2.05 seconds. She followed that with a run of 6.31 in the goat tying and secured her second gold buckle. She also competed in barrel racing and team roping. Thompson was 125th in the barrel racing average, and she and her partner, Asa Pixley, had a run of 7.27 in the first round, but had a ‘no-time’ in the second round. All of that made her the top cowgirl competitor in the girls’ events at the NHSFR. One of Hadley’s horses, CD Smokin’ Miss Kitty, was named an AQHA Horse of the Year last week, as well.

The Wyoming girls’ team finished sixth with 2,860 team points. The boys were 25th with 1,060 points. Overall, Team Wyoming placed 11th with 3,750 team points.

Other top performers at the 2025 NHSFR from Wyoming included Brenson Bartlett in Bull Riding. He placed sixth with a 68-point ride in the finals. Blue Butler finished in 16th place in the goat tying at 11.91 seconds. Three more Wyoming cowgirls placed in the top 20 of pole bending. Emeree Tavegie was fifth at 20.112 seconds, Caitlin Moore placed 10th at 20.586 seconds, and Abby Millburg-Holcomb came in 20th place at 25.477 seconds.

The 2026 NHSFR will be in Lincoln, NE.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has reopened a handcart trail for youth at its Wyoming Mormon Trail Historic Sites, allowing participants to pull handcarts along a 29-mile linear route that follows the original pioneer trail from Sixth Crossing over Rocky Ridge to Rock Creek Hollow.

After being halted due to the global pandemic and other logistical complications, this trail is available for the first time in a decade, said Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder and executive director of the Church History Department.

Elder McKay noted that walking these Wyoming trails enables members to connect with their ancestors and Church history, gaining insight into the challenges faced by handcart pioneers.

“This trail whispers,” he said. “There are those who have gone on before, and we listen to their stories, and we read their stories, and their testimony still reverberates in these sagebrush-covered hills.”

Elder McKay and his wife, Sister Jennifer S. McKay, accompanied youth and leaders of the Hooper Utah Pioneer Trail Stake in walking the extended trail July 8-9.

“I know the potential that this place has for providing an amazing experience,” Elder McKay said. “And so when we were finally able to open the trail back up, I wanted to be here.”

What drove them

Sixth Crossing is where the Willie Handcart Company encountered the first rescue wagons at the Sweetwater River amid early winter conditions in 1856.

A short time later, the Willie company sheltered at Rock Creek Hollow after the difficult ascent of Rocky Ridge — one of the highest points of altitude (7,300 feet) along the Oregon, Mormon and California trails — during a severe snowstorm.

Sister McKay said walking the trail helps one better understand the pioneers’ faith and perspective.

“What drove the people to do what they did was their love for God and their willingness to follow a prophet, and that is what drives us. We love our Heavenly Father. We want to let God prevail,” she said. “You can feel and you can see God at work in the lives of His children.”

The trek experience

Robert Goates, site president of the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites, encouraged stakes, wards and branches to bring their young women and men to have this “unique experience.”

“They can walk where their ancestors walked. They can see the landscape that they saw in the conditions in which they saw and experienced it,” Goates said. “This is sacred ground, but it becomes sacred for very personal reasons to those youth that feel the Spirit here, and feel a deeper relationship with their Savior.”

Blake Hansen, a youth participant, said, “You can feel the spirit when you’re walking along these trails.”

Fellow trekker Lydia Burrows said: “I have a pioneer ancestor that came across in the Willie Handcart Company, and it’s been really cool to walk in his footsteps and to see and be in the places that he was. It makes me feel so much more connected and to realize that they went through really hard things. But through Jesus Christ, they made it.”

Added Brayden Calvin, “Trek has helped me draw closer to Christ by wanting to help others. I’ve been able to help with other people. So, like serving others, and then also just being able to turn to Him when things get hard.”

How to make a trek reservation

Members are welcomed and encouraged to have the trek experience at the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites, said Benjamin Pykles, director of the Church History Department’s Historic Sites Division.

“You are walking where they walked and having as authentic an experience as you can get,” he said. “Trekking is still happening, and you have great experiences. We have this new route. It’s arduous, but it’s exciting.”

Handcart trek reservations for 2026 open in September. Information for how to request a trek reservation, along with itinerary options, planning resources, frequently asked questions and more are available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.