OLD AGE IS NOT FOR SISSIES

NOTHING IN LIFE IS TO BE FEARED

Day 2 on the California Trail – Crossing Jimmy Stewart’s Ranch

by Filed Under: Following Old Trails, Travel 4 Comments

Today, we want to follow the California Trail backtracking through that area we missed yesterday.  We got up and headed north out of Wells to follow the Emigrant Trail Road, also known as the California Trail. We will follow this part of the Trail in reverse of the way the emigrants traveled.

 

 

 

 

We entered using a road a little over 20 miles north of Wells, Nevada on US 93. There is a sign there that says this is the entrance to the Wine Cup/Gamble Ranch. This entrance is just north of Wilkins, Idaho which is just a point on the map. This very large ranch is famous here because it was once owned by Jimmy Stewart.

 

 

 

 

We followed the road, which I had mapped through Google maps. Because we have no service out here, I also made screenshots of the google map route. Third, we had hard copy maps, too, just in case.

 

 

Map of Roads Near the California Trail

We started out today at the red marker and went east.

 

 

The gravel county-maintained road was a good one, but there was no traffic. In fact we only passed one truck in over sixty miles of travel.  It looked like rain all day, but the rain never got to the ground.

 

 

 

 

In just a few miles, we saw where the road turned off going to the Wine Cup/Gamble Ranch house. Here there is a US Bureau of Land Management sign that explains the history of this area. We did not take the road down to the ranch. There is a big lodge in the distance.

 

 

 

 

We can see why Jimmy Stewart loved it here.  Th vistas are beautiful, and don’t you know what it must have meant to him after dealing with the over-populated areas of Southern California.  At the ranch here is where the California Trail pulls off from the gravel road that we’re driving, down to the southwest. This is where the California Trail turned more south leading down to Wells.
Traveling east, from here until the gravel road got to Rock Spring, the road followed fairly closely the California Trail. Signs told us when the trail and the road were the same.

 
I also read that through here the emigrants found spring after spring, some cold and good, some hot, some boiling hot, and at least one ‘stinking’, which was probably sulfur. They named this Thousand Springs Valley, and they followed the Thousand Springs Creek.

 

 

 

 

We followed the Thousand Springs Road, which in some places reads the Old Emigrant Trail on Google maps. We believe that where it says it is the emigrant trail that the California Trail and the road bed are the same. Signs on the roadside tell us this, too.

 
In one place the emigrants reported that a boiling hot spring set next to a cold one, and this is where people stopped to wash their clothes.

 

 

 

 

There is a big trail of dust following us. It is dry, hot and dusty. Imagine what it was like for them.

 

 

 

 

The gravel road continued to be good for about forty miles with the small exception of an area that was sandy. We worried about getting stuck, but bounced on through with little trouble. We realized that there are no cars or trucks of any kind to save us if we get stuck, and there is no phone service of any kind either.

 

 

 

 

But the roads were so good!

 
That didn’t last, though.

 
All of a sudden we came around a curve and there it was. A long stretch of road, about fifty feet long full of sand. I thought, “Oh Crap”. We didn’t have time to stop and thankfully Chuck has learned not stop in these conditions no matter what. His redneck training is coming along quite well.

 
What was worse, though, was that we bounced into a hole or rather a trough. The sand puffed up in a cloud around us as we slogged on through. I’m beginning to doubt this is sand. It seems fine as silt and did not slow us down in the least.

 
The car bounced out of the trough on the other side. The bottom of the trough was rough like it was filled with boulders. We bounced and rattled all the way through. The stuff in our car such as suitcases and bags bounced all around, some landing in the floorboard. But we could not see anything because the trough was filled with this silty chalk-like substance.
Both of us instantly knew that this was not good. How many more of these are ahead?

 
We are now very wary of this road, especially after the pit of chalk we bounced into. We eased along until we saw a trail sign that announced the Rock Spring, which I remembered from researching the trail.

 

 

 

 

The spring rises north of the trail from under a ledge of rock on a mountain ridge. The emigrants who wrote about this place said that they found the spring usually crowded with men, cattle, and wagons. The spring water is warm and still runs today. Many emigrants camped here.

 

 

 

 

While resting at the spring, I read what an emigrant said about the area west of the springs, “…bad as this was we pitched our tent in the dust, for the soil is as dry and fine as magnesia and rises at every step, covering everything.”

 

 

 

 

I think the trough we drove through several miles back might have been filled with what this emigrant described. Our black Toyota Camry is now almost white with the stuff. I also read that this dust chaps their faces and hands. They said the dust was tormenting and had a lime-like appearance.

 
Just after the Rock Springs, the road forks and either way we can see that the road is rough. We decide that this is a good place to turn around and go back.

 
We had to bounce back through the chalk trough again; but it went ok…again. Finally, we reached the road going to the Wine Cup ranch house, and we knew we were almost back to US 93.

 
As I mentioned before, the road here goes southwest, which is the Humboldt Wells route. It begins here at the ranch and descends into the Valley of Humboldt Wells. The Humboldt Wells form the headwaters of the Humboldt River, the river that the emigrants followed all the way across northern Nevada. The wells were a popular campsite for the emigrants.

 
Today these wells are on private property, so we didn’t try to see them; but I did look them up on Google Earth. They are north of Wells and west of US 93.

 

 

Some of the wells are in the channelized square.

 

 

We stopped again at Bella’s for a late lunch. We ended up not needing the sandwich we bought just in case we got stuck on the trail. We’ll carry it on for a later emergency.

 
Our path this afternoon followed the Humboldt River which runs from east to west through very arid land. The emigrants picked up the river near Wells and followed it all the way to near what is called Trinity on the map, where the river flowed into Humboldt sink, east of today’s Reno.

 
We are traveling on Interstate 80 which follows the river, their old trail, and the tracks of the Central Pacific Railroad. Here towns sprung up along behind the building of the railroad back in the late 1860s. I call them “Hell on Wheels” towns, which I’ll explain later. Promitory Point where the two rails met is west of here in Utah.

 
The settlers following the California Trail were not that impressed with the Humboldt River. Several journals called it hot, muddy, and diminutive.

 
The waiter at Bella’s gave us good advice on lodging for this evening. He suggested the Stockman Hotel and Casino in Elko, NV.

 
So we drove west to Elko on Interstate 80 following the California Trail which followed the Humboldt River.

 

 

 

 

Note: My advice to anyone who tries to drive the California Trail between Wells, Nevada and Almo, Idaho is to plan, prepare, and plan again. Part of the road up to Rock Spring is very good, but I have no idea what is beyond. What I do know is that it is desolate. If you break down, you need to be ready to backpack out with food, shelter, and water for days. And I also wouldn’t try it without a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Day 1 on the California Trail-The Parting of the Ways

by Filed Under: Following Old Trails, Travel Leave a Comment

I have gold miner ancestors, and there is a good chance that my fourth great grandfather Roe was a part of the California Gold Rush. So for years I have wanted to follow the California Trail.  This is another group of posts for my “Following Old Trails” series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between 1841 and 1869, up to a quarter of a million people sold what they could not carry in a wagon and set out for California. These settlers moved over 2,000 miles to their new homes. Most made it, but some like several of the Donner party did not. They moved seeking new land, gold, adventure, and other reasons that we’ll never know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of their trail was along the more commonly traveled Oregon Trail, and they entered their California Trail cutoff from many different points along the Oregon Trail. There was no easy trail to California, and they kept trying new trails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How hard what it to get to California? Well, the first wagon train (the Bidwell party of 39 emigrants) left their wagons near Wells, Nevada and went on to California by foot using packed livestock to get there in 1841. In 1844 the Stephens Party traveling the Truckee route abandoned their wagons near what is today Donner Lake and packed onward. In the spring they went back for the wagons and were the first emigrants to take their wagons all the way to Sutter’s Fort. And we’ve all heard what happened to the 1845 Donner Party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to one brochure, in the end the trail looked like a rope with frayed ends, because there so many cut-offs at each end. The Humboldt River being the rope through the high desert of today’s Nevada.

 

 
On this trail were so many places to try their souls. There were prairies, canyons, deserts, and rugged mountains. If the high deserts of the Great Basin with its sluggish, alkaline Humboldt River didn’t get them, then there was the 40-mile desert east of today’s Reno with no water. After all of this, then they had to face the steep passes of the Sierra Nevadas just as winter was coming on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chuck and I decided to use the more commonly used cut-off trail that led from Fort Hall in Idaho and followed the Raft River south. We entered the Raft River Valley from Interstate 86 between Twin Falls and Pocatello, Idaho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This road on some maps is called the Raft River Road and on others the Yale Road. This is the road that most closely follows the trail. Where it pulls off the interstate is the Yale Road exit. This is where we began to follow the California Trail. We will try to follow as closely to the trail as good roads will allow.

 

 
The road and the trail here passes through eight miles of farmland, and you can see the mountain ranges in the distance ahead. It runs through a very wide valley. There are also mountain ranges on both sides. The terrain in the valley undulates.

 

 

 

Raft River Valley

The Raft River Valley

 

 

 

The colors for us were the same as for the settlers. This is August, about the same time period the settlers traveled through here. The grasses are straw colored from so little rain, and there is soft grayish-green sagebrush everywhere.  Walking through the sagebrush is aromatic.  It is a cloudy day, and the shadows dapple the foothills in the distance.

 

 
Most of these California-bound settlers were from the confining forested lands back east, which must seem oppressive to westerners today. I’m from back east, too; and I’m always captivated by the width of the vistas out here.

 

 
I wonder if the unlimited horizons translated for the settlers into unlimited possibilities. Did it provoke optimism that held them all the way through the long and monotonous journey?

 

 

 

Raft River Valley

Raft River Valley

 

 

 

What made them do it? Word was getting out that there was a better life in California, as good or better than found in Oregon. Wagons with families began to pull off of the Oregon Trail and make their way down to California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, these California-bound wagons had other family members who continued on to Oregon. There was a parting of the ways. Maybe the daughter of an Oregon-bound family married a son from a California-bound family or vice versa. Which way did the new family go?

 

 
Sometimes brothers decided to go their separate ways. The Oregon bound followed the Snake River, while the California bound followed the Raft River south and west nearly to its source. Those going to Oregon went right and those going to California went left. Families had to say their goodbyes. More often than not, it was goodbye forever.

 

 
Yale Road follows the Raft River, and the emigrants had been following rivers all the way across the west to reach this point. They followed rivers because they provided water and grazing for their livestock. Upon reaching the Raft, the emigrants turned south on the west side of the river.

 

 
The emigrants reported that the trail here was bad, dusty and “not a breath of air stirring to drive off the dust cloud that hung in the air.” They would move along at about 15 miles a day, a distance that we can drive in less than 14 minutes in air conditioned comfort.

 

 

 

A wagon bed.

A wagon bed — I would sure hate to know that everything I wanted to take had to fit in this space.

 

 

 

If we really wanted to do this trail like they did, then we could hike the trail. At our age, though, I’m afraid we would never finish it. 🤔

 

 
There is a series of books that I’m using to find the roads closest to the trail. It is called “A Guide to the California Trail” by R. K. Brock and D. E. Buck. It gives detailed instructions on how to follow the trail and includes trail narratives from the emigrant journals and diaries. It would be a good series to use to hike the trail.

 

 
Finally, Yale Road crossed over Interstate 84, which runs south to Salt Lake City. Just on the other side of Interstate 84 we turned to the left on State Road 81 and drove for quite a few miles until we got to a little town called Malta. There we turned right on to State Road 77. These are still the roads that most closely follow the trail.

 

 
We realized that Malta was our last place to gas up. There are no reliable gas stations between Malta, Idaho and Wells, Nevada, if we take the dirt and gravel roads that follow closest to the trail, a distance of over 230 miles. These are some of the important facts that the book gives us.

 

 
There are at least two historical markers along the California Trail on State Road 81 . Both explain what it was like for the settlers to travel through this valley. They describe why they needed to follow rivers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too far down State Road 77, Idaho 77 pulls off to the right. But we did not follow It. Instead we went straight. Within a few minutes we saw a sign that said that this was indeed the California Trail. So we knew we were on the right road. I had a copy of an old California Trail map, and this is how we knew that the road should have gone straight.

 

 
For the longest time, though, we weren’t sure what road number was that we were on. That is until we passed a sign that said we’re on Idaho 77. We just aren’t sure why it had 77 pulling off to the right and going straight, too. Local signs for a Scenic Bypass tried to steer us the other way.

 

 
There is a historical marker on this road that says that this is where the Hudspeth Cut-off joined the trail. Though it wasn’t much of a shorter route, most of the 49ers used it on their way to the gold rush fields. I wonder if this is the cut-off my ancestor’s party used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we followed ‘this’ Idaho 77 all the way to Almo, Idaho. A sign in Almo says, “Almo, where the pavement ends and the west begins.” Just below present day Almo is where the Salt Lake Cut-Off met the California Trail. During the Gold Rush, this is where wagons joined them “from the Mormon City”, according to one emigrant’s diary.

 

 
Also below Almo is where the City of Rocks is located. This is a national reserve now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The City of Rocks wasn’t really a city. It was simply a circular valley where the settlers’ wagons stopped to camp. There was fresh water, there were places for their livestock to graze, and there were trees for shade. The settlers called this valley Pleasant Valley, because it was a great place to stop. Several left their signatures and talked about this place in their journals.

 

 

 

Record Rock

The rock where so many emigrants left their signatures.

 

 

 

It was also where there were rocks of every shape imaginable. One emigrant wrote, “We enter a gorge of the hills which in a short time brings us into a large ampitheatre surrounded with rock of every kind of fanciful character.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is also the end of the paved roads for following the California Trail. It turns to gravel at this point, and I found out from a lady at the general store in Almo that even the gravel roads run out. By the way her store is a good place to get a homemade sandwich. Also, the steakhouse restaurant in Almo is good, too.

 

 
On the west side of the trail above Wells, Nevada, the gravel roads are good and follow the trail very closely. We read this in our book.  We will try these roads out later, driving some of the trail from that western side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a map that shows that they crossed from Idaho to Utah to Nevada right at the three corners of these states. There are no paved roads through this area, but I did find on my google map an Old Emigrant Road, which is gravel. This turned out to be the trail itself, which we found later when we drove it from the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I first studied this route I thought that they followed Goose Creek all the way through this area. What I had wrong, though, is that Goose Creek did not flow due south next to the Utah and Nevada line. Chuck and I took Utah 30 and discovered that there was a Goose Creek that crossed that road near the state lines. We wondered if this was the route they took, so we were confused.

 

 
But that creek bed was dry. I looked at this area again on Google Earth and noticed that there is a creek bed also called Goose Creek that could be accessed through a pass just southwest of the City of Rocks. This Goose Creek looks greener, which means it may have running water. It runs southwest from past the pass, not south.  You can see on Google Earth where the creek beds were.  This helped clear up some of the  confusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using Google Earth, a Utah and Nevada road map, and my own Google map, I believe one can follow the California Trail by gravel roads, a distance of over several hundred miles.  I’m just not sure if you need a 4-Wheel drive or not.

 

 
Chuck and I drove up to the City of Rocks. There were signs that showed that we were on the original trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We loved seeing this place. It is an amazing site, and I can only imagine what the settlers thought when they saw its grey granite forms of turrets, pyramids and domes. We drove through the rocks and stopped for many pictures. My favorite was Record Rock on which many of the settlers wrote their names in axle grease.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We followed the road on past the Twin Sisters rock formations through Pinnacle Pass and on for about a mile farther. The pass in their time was just wide enough to get a single wagon through.

 

 

 

Pinnacle Pass at the City of Rocks

Pinnacle Pass

 

 

 

Unlike the movies, the wagons didn’t follow one another in single file, instead they pulled out and moved side by side. It was less dusty this way. Of course, at passes like Pinnacle Pass, they fell into a single file again. It was too narrow to do otherwise.

 

 
By the way just on the exit side of Pinnacle Pass there is a little parking area. A hiking trail to the pass and beyond is clearly marked. On the other side of the pass you can still see the faint remains of the California Trail gradually ascending through the sagebrush into Pinnacle Pass.

 

 
It is between this pass and along the Humboldt River that the emigrants jettisoned some of their treasures such as china, heirlooms, and furniture. Though the average wagon could carry a ton, these items made the load too heavy. Supplies such as food, utensils, stoves, bedding, lanterns, axes, wagon parts, ropes, and livestock were more essential. Women made up about 30% of the travelers.

 

 
Emigrants reported seeing all kinds of these items abandoned along side the trail. One reported seeing Mormons from Salt Lake in the area gathering the items to take back to Salt Lake where there were General stores which sold these items to the passing emigrants.

 

 
Down a ways from the pass the road was getting rougher and rougher. This is not a graded or gravel road, so we turned around. We had the wrong car for this type of terrain.

 

 

 

For us to follow the California Trail farther today, we need better roads or a four wheel drive and more time. It is already 6 pm, too late for over 200 miles of this and gravel. We backtracked all the way to Malta, Idaho, a distance of 24 miles.

 

 
Once we got back to Malta, we turned right off of 77, where Idaho 77 continues north. Then we traveled south on a paved two-landed road that had no sign but showed up on my GPS.
This is beautiful country. We are still in the Raft River valley but going south. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides. This road we are driving goes all the way south where it turns onto Utah 30.

 

 

 

South of Malta, Idaho

 

 

 

The terrain was at first fairly flat with the same straw colored grass lands and grayish green sagebrush. Just after we crossed over the Utah state line, though, the terrain changed to more hills and green cedars amongst the grasses and sage.

 

 
We are no longer following the California Trail as closely, but we are traveling parallel to it at a good distance. The trail is to our northwest.

 

 
The California Trail turned southwest, too; and we did, too.  The trail is on the other side of the Sawtooth National Forest and a narrow mountain range.

 

 

 

The terrain continues to change.  We continued to drive through grasses with less sage and no cedars. There was no traffic. The road ran straight as a board.

 

 
Then, it climbed and made a right turn. To our left we could see a vast white area in the distance. Its end disappears over the horizon. On the map it shows that we are about ten miles north of the Great Salt Lake. There is nothing but flat land between us and the lake.

 

 

 

Great Salt Lake

The North Shore of the Great Salt Lake in the Distance (Utah)

 

 

 

We know that most of the wagon trains did not take this route because they continued to follow water. The road we’re own just shoots straight across dry desert-looking lands.

 

 
Back on the California Trail, the Raft River stopped at its headwaters in the Goose Creek Mountains; but Goose Creek provided another stream for the wagon trains to follow with water and grazing lands. So that is why they are using the land next to Goose Creek that runs north to the south and west through the Goose Creek Mountains.

 

 
This is interesting country. There are towns on these gravel roads that pull off Utah 30. We could see one in the distance just north of the Great Salt Lake. There is also another one on the gravel road that follows Goose Creek. We can see it on a map.

 

 
As we approached the Nevada state line, we see the Newfoundland Evaporation Basin on our left and tall mountains straight ahead. This basin is man-made and designed to capture excess water from the Great Salt Lake.

 

 
We crossed Goose Creek about a mile west of the Goose Creek Rd, a gravel road. It is dry as toast. This is what confused us, because I thought it showed Goose Creek on the map going no where near this road. I have no service or I would recheck Google Earth and other maps. You can see that I was still confused about where the trail went.

 

 
We’re traveling through this area around the first of August, and the settlers traveled through here around the end of August or first of September. I’m wondering if they got any more rain than we’re getting right now. It hasn’t rained a drop on us in several days. This place is dry and hot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just after the creek we crossed over into Nevada. The mountains are all around us in the distance and beautiful. The road is now Nevada 233.

 

 

 

The Nevada State Line

 

 

 

We finally got on Interstate 80 going west and got back off in a town called Wells. We stopped at a fairly good little restaurant called Bella’s in Wells, Nevada just off the interstate. Since it was called Bella’s I ordered the spaghetti. Chuck ordered baked chicken. Mine was great, but he said his was average. My advice is to order the Italian entrees at Bella’s.

 

 
After the settlers left the City of Rocks in Idaho and quickly crossed a small part of what is today the Utah/Nevada state line, they followed various streams south west for several hundred miles until they got to Wells, which was an area of natural water wells.

 

 
The Humboldt River’s main stream begins from one of these wells. A well around here is what we call a spring back east. I guess if this were back east, then Wells would be called Springs.

 

 

 

A Detour and an Idaho Forest Fire

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What happens when you drive into a forest fire?

 

 

Chuck and I had three days at the end of our vacation before returning to Tallahassee, so we decided to take a trip north on the Sawtooth Scenic Byway in Idaho. Our plan was to make a loop up into the mountains from the east and then drive back down to Boise from the west using the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway.

 

 

 

 

 

We drove north of Burley and picked up the scenic byway in Shoshone driving toward Hailey, Idaho on SR 75. We got to Hailey about 6 pm and grabbed a bite to eat at the very good Cafe at the Brewery.

 

 
This is a charming town of about 8,000 people located in the Wood River Valley. Their claim to fame is Demi Moore and Ezra Pound. Great place to walk on its streets and people watch after dinner.

 

 
Everywhere we go people are watching the Olympics on the big screen TVs in these bars. Tonight we watched the women’s USA beach volleyball team play the Brazilians. Unfortunately for us, the Brazilians won.

 

 
I picked up a trail map of suggested hikes around Hailey. What a great place to hike. There are shady hikes by rivers and streams and lofty ridge-line hikes high above. The terrain here makes it ideal. It reminded me of the areas around Durango.

 

 
We cannot take the time to hike much, though, because we have a long way to go through the mountains back to Boise. I guess we’re just doing reconnaissance today.

 

 

 

Day 2
We spent the night here at the Wood River Inn and then struck out the next morning. The scenic part of the drive really does not begin until after the town of Ketcham, Idaho, which is a ski town.

 

 
Ketcham is small, and we decided to stop and take a walk. We were disappointed. The traffic was loud and a total nuisance.  This town needs a truck route.

 

 
The stores were overpriced even though there were sales everywhere. I found their sale items even way overpriced. I saw a cute sweater coat in a store, but it was $795. This place is not for us.

 

 
By the way this town sits in Sun Valley, and the ski resort is close by. That is probably why it is so overpriced. Maybe this is the Aspen of Idaho.

 

 
A walk signal kept us waiting for what seemed like forever (even Chuck was complaining); and the whole time the traffic was deafening, so we just decided to turn around and walk back to our car. This might have been a good place to have lunch but it is only about 11 am. We decided to drive on.

 

 
After Ketcham where the scenic part of this highway really began, the traffic disappeared. The road ran east to west, and the mountain range to our north was truly beautiful and majestic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We can see why this is called the Sawtooth Range. Its high ridge line is jagged. The road is mostly easy, though, following through a long valley with mountains on each side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before we got to the end of the valley we saw a sign that said that in the winter snow chains were needed ahead, and then we began to climb. The views up on the summit were awesome, though somewhat obscured by the smoke.

 

 
We learned last night that there is a large forest fire south of us. Since this road eventually turns south to go to Boise, we wondered if the fire would pose a problem. Our drive may go through this area, but we have heard nothing about closures.

 

 
We also worried a little about how we could reverse our direction if they did close the area. There is only one road south to Boise. The return would be s long one.

 

 
We stopped at the Church Overlook and tried to take pictures, but it is very smoky.  The two pictures below show my picture n top and he the same area looks on a clearer day.  The bottom photo is a Wikimedia picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other side of the summit, we drove back down into a large, deep valley, where we stopped to eat at the Smiley Creek Lodge and restaurant. We always enjoy stopping to dine. We are not fast food eaters. We take our time to eat and relax. I read that there is good hiking here, and this lodge looks like a good place to stay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Salmon River also follows SR 75, and we are near its headwaters. I spent some time on this River near Idaho’s eastern state line several days ago while on the Lewis & Clark Trail.

 

 
It is still so smoky, and while at lunch we read that this fire is all around Lowman, Idaho, which is where we have a room reserved for the evening. The fire is called the Pioneer fire. The article though just says that the fire is near, and there has been no evacuation order for Lowman. We cannot tell if the fire is near where we are staying. We also have no phone service here.

 

 
There are patches of aspens here and there. When the wind blows, they shimmer green. They have yet to begin turning. We are driving toward Stanley, Idaho. We also stopped and hiked several times down to the river. Chuck is always looking for a good fishing hole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we reached Stanley. There are some stores and inns in Stanley; but this is where we turned left and began driving south to Boise on SR 21. We only stopped for a few minutes.

 

 
We were then on the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway. It ran through forests and mountains.

 

 

Just south of Stanley there had been a recent wildfire. We crossed three swaths of what looked like retardant. It was red and stained across the road with a path on each side of the road. It looked like it had been air dropped perpendicular to the road.

 

 

We didn’t realize it at the time, but we are now officially in the Pioneer fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped in Lohman near where we were staying for the night. Both of us had to use the facilities, and it was around 4 pm. So we stopped at a Cafe called Haven Hot Springs, and we ordered a piece of the cafe’s coconut cream pie made by the owner, who was also our waitress. The pie was the best I had ever tasted, and the slice could have fed our entire family including the grandkids.

 

 

 

The river that follows SR 21 through Lohman.

 

 

 

We talked to her for quite some time. She was from Florida having been raised in Sarasota. Outside of the cafe was a Confederate flag that said, “Heritage, Not Hate.”

 

 
Someone in the cafe said that none of us sounded like we were from Florida. I guess because of our southern accents. So I explained that it is because so many people from the north have moved into Florida that no one remembers what we sound like anymore.

 

 
We learned from the waitress that her parents were part of the circus down in Sarasota, but that they didn’t want her to have a career in the circus. So now she lives in Idaho.

 

 
Also just outside the window by our table was a bird dog and a hummingbird feeder hanging above just under the eave. The bird dog kept watching for something on the ground and appeared to be pointing. Everyone who walked by looked around on the ground to see what was going on.

 

 
We learned from the waitress that the dog points the shadows of the hummingbirds on the ground. Poor thing. He needs to come to Monticello so he can point real game.

 

 
We finally left and found our lodging for the evening at the Sourdough Inn. The Sourdough Restaurant was there, too. It was full of firemen taking a break from fighting the fire. Everyone was sweaty and dirty. Fighting fires is tough work. There are signs everywhere thanking them for their help and dedication.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we took a good long walk and later we got to see one of the gigantic fire fighting helicopters fly down and back up the stream. He had what appeared to be a big hose hanging down underneath. Everything was super smoky.

 

 

 

 

Around 11 pm I walked outside the cabin to see if I could see the glow from the forest fire, but the moon was too bright. Chuck was already asleep. Everything was aglow. We both wondered earlier if sometime during the night we might get a knock on the door to evacuate.

 

 

 

Day 3
We had breakfast in the restaurant, soudough pancakes. Yum! The restaurant was full of firefighters and locals. All the talk was about fire jumping and other such specialty fire fighting.

 

 
And then we began driving on south down Idaho 21 toward Boise. We have about 80 miles to go. If we have to turn around at this point, it will be about 240 miles of mountain driving and another 175 miles of interstate driving to get to Boise from here. There is no other road back because the other road that goes west is closed due to this same fire.

 

 
In the Boise National Forest, we noticed that all the roads to the right as we traveled south were already closed. The fire must be in that direction. We had no idea that the fire was all around us.

 

 

 

A map of the fire. Red is where the fire is active. Black is where it has been put out

 

 

 

In Lohman, we saw their fire camp. It was huge.

 

 

 

Fire camp at Lohman

 

 

 

We also stopped at a historical marker which told the story about the fire of 1989 and the fire storm that developed. Folks up here talk about fires like we talk about hurricanes in Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The aftermath of an older forest fire.

 

 

 

South of Lohman the road began to climb in a series of switchbacks. We stopped to take photos over and over as it got higher. I guess we were afraid that we might miss the best scenic view. The views were awesome but smoky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove through an area that had a sign that said fire activity ahead. There was a firefighter standing by a closed road with a radio in his hand. The area ahead was an area of patchy flared spots. You could tell that they had it contained here but there were flare ups to watch for. We wondered if that was his job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every time we thought we were past the forest fire area, we would run into a new one. This happened for many miles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About thirteen miles north of Idaho City we finally ran out of the fires. There were two more swaths of fire retardant that had been dropped across the road here.

 

 
We never saw another fire past this point, but there were three ambulances and EMTs waiting in a small camp at Moore Summit’s roadside park.

 

 
We drove 29 miles through this fire. We never saw flames, but lots of smoldering areas, lots of wood already burned down, and lots of forest fire men and equipment. One time we passed a school bus full of men and women going up to the fires. We have seen several women firefighters up here, too.

 

 
While we were there, this fire was over 86,000 acres in size; and there were over 1,800 personnel assigned to the Pioneer forest fire. They had it 50% contained.

 

 
We stopped for lunch in Idaho City, but it was nothing to write home about. Between Idaho City and Boise, there was one more nice drive. We drove along the stream which was dammed and the entire canyon above the dam is a reservoir. It was a beautiful scenic drive and the last one of our vacation.

 

 
Just before we went to dinner in Boise, we saw what looked like a new big flare in the mountains, a giant plume of smoke boiling up; but we learned enough to know that this could have been the Forest Service lighting a backfire. We just weren’t sure.

 

 

 

z
We went home the next day.

 

 

 

NOTE:

 

Today, I checked into the Pioneer forest fire, and it increased to over 100,000 acres in size. There are now over 2,000 personnel assigned to this forest fire. They have it about 48% contained, but it threatened a town named Pioneerville.

 

 
Here in Florida, even with an average of over 60 inches of rainfall a year, we still have droughts and forest fire (s). Florida has over 25 million acres of forests.

 

 
Two of our Florida Forest Service crews were sent to help Colorado with their forest fire last week (Meeker & Dinosaur Monument, CO), and I just learned today that another crew is being sent to California to the Soberanes Fire at Diablo Mountain near Monterrey. My cousin is with that crew.

 

 

 

Photo by Jake Edge found on Florida Forest Service Facebook page.

 

 

 

While we drove through the Pioneer Forest Fire last week, the Florida crew at Dinosaur Monument was dropped into their fire by helicopter.

 

 

 

Photo found on Florida Forest Service Facebook page

 

 

 

Godspeed to all our country’s forest fire fighters who are doing all they can to keep all of us and our property safe.

How to do Yosemite!

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Yosemite is an amazingly beautiful national park, but you need a plan when visiting. We thought we had a plan, but it didn’t turn out as expected. I’ll try to explain.

The night before we entered the Park, we stayed in Bridgeport, California, which is east of Yosemite National Park very near the Nevada state line. We had about a forty minute drive to Yosemite’s east entrance.

Leave no doubt almost all of the hotels on the eastern side are grossly overpriced. We stayed in the Walker River Lodge which is an older motel. Our room with tax and all was $190, and the hotel was not full.

If you wait to gas up at Tioga, which is the closest place to the eastern side of the park, they really soak you. Gas was about $2.59 in Nevada. The gas in Tioga was $4.09 a gallon.

We turned on to SR 120 which leads to the eastern entrance of the park. The views and scenery were awesome!!! We quickly climbed to cross a summit at over 9,000 feet.

We entered the park from the east side, because this is summertime, early August; and we thought it would be better to do it backwards and during a weekday. The big urban areas are west of the park, so the crowds come from that direction early in the morning. Right?

Well, not exactly!

We did Glacier backwards, and it worked beautifully. We entered it from the less traveled eastern side and had no traffic or crowds until we got at least half way across the park.

Not so for Yosemite. At first there was little traffic. But by the time we got to the east entrance which is quite a ways down SR 120, the traffic had already picked up. At the entrance there was a line of cars waiting that was over 20 deep. Where did they all come from?

A ranger, though, was walking from car to car; and when he got to us, he noticed we were seniors and asked if we had senior park passes. We did, so he motioned us on through the entrance. No wait in line. Being old does have it advantages from time to time. 😎

So we are driving all the way across the park with no stops. We have a lunch reservation (big mistake) in the dining room of the park’s premier lodge The Majestic Yosemite Hotel. We love to visit these old park hotels.

Rooms here were booked well before summer and are expensive. We didn’t plan our trip until around the middle of June, so we were not staying at The Majestic but instead at the Yosemite Valley Lodge nearby. This turned out to be a great choice, because of the traffic.

Still, we had to cross the park. We had about two and a half hours to drive all the way across the park to get to our lunch destination. The drive crosses a Sierra mountain range with snow in its higher elevations. It is beautiful but we can’t stop because of the lunch reservation. 😔

A highlight of these older and larger national parks are their old Grand Dame hotels. Our favorite was the one at Mt. Hood that was built during the depression when the WPA hired all the area’s unemployed artists and skilled carpenters to build the hotel there. The Timberline Lodge is an architectural and artistic gem. We are never disappointed taking time out of our vacation to check out these beautiful facilities.

But first, I need to talk about the traffic in Yosemite. It is just truly horrible. By the time we got to about a third of the way across the Park we caught up with a long line of cars following an RV. He was slow because he had to be. What he didn’t have to be, though, was so darned inconsiderate.

There were numerous places he could have pulled off to let the growing line of cars go. We fell farther and farther behind for our scheduled lunch. Then we hit the real traffic. As we got closer to our destination, it just got worse.

By the time we got to the Yosemite Valley where several of the lodging facilities are located including the Majestic Yosemite Hotel, it was bumper to bumper with two lanes going in one direction. I’ve seen less traffic on a Saturday night in Miami Beach.

We finally got to The Majestic, but we were thirty minutes late for our reservation. I was totally stressed; but it seemed that everyone else was late, too. They took us right into the dining room, which was beautiful.

The Majestic was built in the 1920s. We had a wonderful lunch.

The Merced entrance to Yosemite (a western entrance) seems to be the closest to everything like El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, etc. This western entrance has a hotel called Yosemite View Lodge that could be perfect for day trippers, but Yosemite needs several days. We stayed three, and I still felt it wasn’t enough. There is so much to see.

If you plan several days in the Park, stay in one of the Park’s facilities. While we were there, there were only two available. They were $125 for a tent house in Half Dome Village and $250 for a room with a king bed in the Yosemite Valley Lodge. We stayed in the Tamarack building of the lodge, which was ideal. Great room, great views of the valley walls, good parking, and a good shuttle stop.

Chuck and I both enjoyed the front porch,

So our well thought out plan did not work. The hotels out the east entrance were way over priced, even though they were not full; and they were too far away to see anything other than the mountain range on the east side of the park, which was magnificent–but there is so much more you will want to see on the west side of the Park.

So here are my five take aways from Yosemite:

1. Don’t miss the Park’s amazing scenic vistas. Four of my top six were views and hikes from the Yosemite Valley Rd. which can only be entered from the west side of the park. They were El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls (it is dry by the first of August, though), and Vernal Falls. We had a view of Yosemite Falls from our parking lot.

We loved Vernal Falls and the hike to get there.

Two more vistas are on down the Tioga Pass Rd. toward the east. Olmsted Point is beautiful when visited just before sunset, but be careful driving back. It was a long drive, and we had a bear lope across in front of us. Thankfully, we saw him in time.

Also on the western side, a walk in Tuolomne Meadows is extra special with an amazing view of the Cathedral Range, the backbone of the Sierra Nevadas.

Cathedral Range, Wikipaedia

2. The traffic is horrible. You just cannot imagine how horrible it is. Best thing to do if you want to see something in the Yosemite Valley is to park your car and use the shuttle.
You can even park in the parking lots of the hotels. Our parking lots in Yosemite Valley Lodge were available to anyone, even day trippers. So park and then get on the shuttle.

Shuttle maps are available in the hotels and visitor centers. The map we got only showed the valley, though. We didn’t realize there was a shuttle that went elsewhere in the park until we were leaving and saw shuttle signs outside of the Valley.

Get out early because the day trippers and much of the traffic doesn’t get into the park until about 10 am.  Then plan to be off the roads between 10 and 3 pm, when they all start leaving.  Don’t plan to use the roads between 10 and about 3 pm.

3. Best place to stay is somewhere on the Yosemite Valley road. It runs one way–a Northside Drive and a Southside Drive. It is very hard to stay outside the park and try to do the park as a day tripper. The traffic is so bad that you spend a lot of precious time trying to get from one place to the other.

4. Distances in the park are very deceiving. The drive from east to west across the park takes over two hours, and during peak times I have no idea how long it would take to go the opposite direction. If you need to get to anywhere in the valley area, add another half hour to an hour. This is where the traffic is the worst.

Your GPS will give you a time of arrival, but it cannot figure in the traffic–probably even WAZ but I didn’t try it so I’m not sure. Also, there is no cell service for most of the park, but I did get AT&T in the valley area.

5. The park map that they give you at the gate? Don’t lose it. Thankfully, we didn’t lose ours until the last day. We literally needed it just to get out of the park. There are several entrances.

We checked at the front desk of the hotel, but they said we had to get it from the information stations or at the gates. To drive anywhere that time of day in the park is an hour drive even if it is just down the road.

Finally, we figured out how to get out of the park; and because I still needed a brochure to write about the park, we stopped to get one at the gate. They said that we needed to ask for it when we come back in. Oh dear!

Don’t lose your park map!

Also, realize that they have changed the names of several lodges and places to stay. For example, The Majestic Yosemite used to be The Ahwahnee. They are still using the old map with the old names.

In addition, a lot of the stops are not marked. We missed Valley View and had to circle back. This map is hard to follow, and if you take a wrong turn in the valley, you pay hell getting back because of the one way roads and the traffic.

If you aren’t sure what stop it is and you are on a one way road, stop and figure it out. If you pass it, you may never get back to it.

Trust me. The traffic is horrible.

But the views are breathtaking!

Day 6 & 7, Lewis & Clark Meet the Nez Perce

by Filed Under: Following Old Trails, Travel 6 Comments

Lewis & Clark probably would have liked to spend the night in a bunkhouse, but I’m not them.  Got up early and had breakfast at the Rack & Reel Restaurant at the Lewis & Clark Resort. Then I hit the road. I’ve decided to drive a new route back east today, working my way up to Weippe, Idaho and then on up to Interstate 90 which runs into Missoula, Montana, where I’ll spend Wednesday night. At least that was my plan.
Weippe, Idaho is on the Weippe Prarie, and it is close to where the Lewis & Clark expedition stumbled out of the Bitterroot Mountains half starved and tired to the bone. They had finally crossed the treacherous Rockies.
The road ‘up’ to Weippe was not only north but up, as in high in altitude. The road climbed in many switchbacks up to about 7,000 feet. The views were awesome.

Weippe Prairie looks just like it sounds. These are high fields of wheat and meadows at about 3,000 feet in altitude.  I don’t think the wheat was here with Lewis & Clark came through.

When the expedition got here in 1805, though, they found a village of Nez Perce living in the forests and meadows.

Weippe Prairie

Clark and an advance party came upon three Nez Perce boys who hid behind tall grasses. Clark pulled out some beads and offered a gift, whereupon the boys took them to their village. These were the first white men the villagers had ever seen before.

The Nez Perce were good to the Lewis & Clark advance party and sent back food for the rest of the expedition. The expedition spent several days with these people while they prepared to push farther westward.
Clark wrote in his journal the exact measurements for the place where this occurred. Then modern day surveyors used these measurements and marked the place with a small monument. It is on a little county road. I used signs beginning in Weippe to show me how to reach the monument.

Upon leaving Weippe, I noticed a Nez Perce / Clearwater National Forest road that cuts back across the mountains from Weippe to Missoula. Since it was still about 11 am, I decided to go that route.  After all the Lolo Motorway is in the Clearwater Naitonal Forest, and this was the route Lewis & Clark took.

The drive for a good 30 miles was paved and absolutely beautiful. The late summer wildflowers lined the roadbed with reds, yellows, purples and whites. The white Queen Ann’s Lace are especially beautiful in the sunlight.

Then the road turned into limestone but was still well marked and maintained. I just had to follow Forest Road 250. I stopped at a small turnout by a creek and had lunch, a can of unheated but pre-cooked chili soup. If I get the pop top cans, I don’t need a can opener. I also had some carrots to munch on and made some instant tea in one of my water bottles.  It is important to note that I also had enough in my cooler for dinner and breakfast, too.  I carry food with me most of the time because restaurants in country like this are few and far between.

And there are no gas stations or stores of any kind for over a hundred miles through this forest.

After lunch, I continued Road 250 which followed either a stream or river. I began to realize that I’m looking at some prime flyfishing waters. I’ll have to go back and check the map to see what streams I’m following.

Every once in a while I see a lone fly fisherman standing in the stream, so these streams are not crowded. I guess this is because it is a weekday, and I drove so far already to get here.
Finally, about 2:30 pm I passed the Kelly Work Center site which is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service property, but it is closed. I was hoping to go in and get a map.
I drove several hours already, but it is slow going. The roads are maintained but they are a wash board in places.
I was fairly certain that Forest Rd. 250 would get me all the way through, but I wanted confirmation. Also, my GPS got screwed up when I inadvertently touched the touchscreen, and it lost the coordinates of Missoula.
The GPS continues to work even with no service. It just shows you when you leave the roadbed. It gives no other instruction nor does it show towns, road numbers etc; but I’ve lost everything, and there is no service to get it back.
I’ve had no cell service since I left Lolo yesterday morning, except for a very weak Wifi service at the resort last night and this morning. It was so weak that I couldn’t drop a post, but I could set up my mapping.
Just past the work center I came to my first real decision. It says that if I take a left this is Rd. 250 going to Superior, Montana. On the map Superior is the closest town to the national forest eastern boundary, but this way seems to be less easy.
The easier and better maintained road goes straight. I do remember seeing that a forest road does come up on SR 12, the Lolo Pass Road, but I’m less sure where the better road ends up.
So I decided to stay on Rd. 250. This road goes all the way through Black Canyon, and the stream is the North Fork of the Clark River. I’ve actually heard of this stream, but don’t remember why. I began to see a lot more fly fishermen, though; and there is much more traffic.
The driving is much more difficult. I’m driving even slower and have to pay closer attention. There was a landslide in one place that looked like they had just repaired it.
This is a forestry service maintained road, but later I would find out that they have trouble keeping it maintained. I crossed two low streams that ran across the road through a structure called an articulated ford. Rocks had fallen from up above, and I would occasionally see a rock in the road that I had to avoid.

An Articulated Ford. Not much water crossing it today.

I hardly got over 20 miles per hour so it would be a very slow 35 miles. Plus I stopped to take pictures.
The sun was very bright, and I was constantly running in and out of shade and sunlight due to the fir forests and open areas. In one place just as I was leaving shade and before my eyes adjusted, I hit something which gave the car a jolt. I worried that there was an unseen rock in the road, but the car seemed fine so I kept going. I also didn’t see it in my rear view mirror.
I stopped at a campsite to use the restrooms. I wondered how much farther I had to go.
About ten more minutes after the restroom stop I noticed that one of my indicator lights was on. I had no idea where the maintenance manual was. I looked for it in the glove box earlier, because I wanted to adjust a side mirror a little better; but I never found it.
Then a little diagram came up on my dash that showed that the Passenger side front tire was low on air pressure. Darn. My tire was going flat, and that’s when I hit another rock. Not good. It all happened within a couple of seconds. I guess I didn’t see the rock, because I was still trying to assess the indicator lights.
I wish I could say that this was a comedy of errors, but I’m still not laughing. That’s because this is Thursday morning, the next day; and I’m writing this from the USDA’s Forest Service Kelly Work Center where I spent the night.
I’ve always known that the Forest Service both USDA and Florida’s are especially great people; but after yesterday, I just cannot say enough good things about these folks.
But first let me explain how I got back here, because I was a good hour and a half past this work center and toward my destination when I got the flat.
I pulled the car off to a little turnout. The road was just a little over a one-lane road here but I am in the forest so it is cool and shady. The road was one-laned for quite a while. I moved everything from the trunk to the backseat. This is a limerock road and my luggage is black. I was still concerned about keeping them clean.

My Little Fiat 500

Then I opened the bottom of the trunk and found no spare. Instead there was this little machine still covered in plastic wrap. It said in big letters, “Please give this to the tire repairman.” Crap! Of course, that was the nicer word for what I really said. What tire repairman! I’m in the middle of the wilderness.
So I removed the plastic wrap and there was a little brochure that explained that this little contraption was to be plugged into my cigarette lighter, then into my tire, and it would blow up my tire while filing it with a chemical that would fix the hole in the tire. Shut the front door! I didn’t even know this existed.
So I did what it said. It didn’t work.
Next it said, “if it doesn’t work, drive the car slowly ten meters and do it again.” Crap, again. I wish I had listened better when Coach McRae taught us the metric system. And I can’t go to Google it like I usually do. So I drove the car down about ten yards, and tried it again.
As I waited the prescribed five minutes again while the little machine ran, two men in a pickup truck stopped to help. Thankfully, they did, because one of them realized right away that the fluid needed to repair the tire was not getting into the tire. He opened a valve in another hose, which was never mentioned in the directions.
He also noticed that the tire had a puncture wound in its side tire wall when the fluid began pouring out its side. He didn’t think the fluid could help in this situation. We kept trying to air the tire up, but it didn’t work. I simply needed the missing spare.
He reminded me of my Dad, who could figure out just about anything given time. I studied that little brochure, but I still got it wrong. He studied the gadget instead and figured it out.
So Kelly Lynch and his friend gave me a ride down to the ranger’s station. Both were fly fishermen and retired. I had a feeling they were when I saw how they were dressed. We talked fly fishing a little on the way back, and I found out that this stream was a very good stream for anglers.
It was at least an hour and half drive one way back to the ranger station, and thank goodness that is where they took me. I’m just so sorry, though, that I messed up their late afternoon fishing. They were just out riding to look for a good fishing spot, and instead they were stuck driving around a helpless female. I really hate that my helplessness got between them and their fishing.
I got to the Kelly Creek Work Center and two forest rangers named Sarah Wyman and TC Peterson helped me contact AAA. They said that they had to send someone out of Idaho to pick me up, but Idaho was four hours behind me. I was only about an hour and a half from Superior, Montana.

Kelly Work Center

Why not send someone from Montana? The dispatcher for AAA said that they wouldn’t come from Montana because I was still in Idaho.
So the tow truck will take four hours to get to me, then it will take me all the way back to Orofino, Idaho, which is even farther west than where I started this morning. Also, because it gets dark soon and because these are rough roads for night driving, the tow truck cannot make it to me until about 9 am in the morning. Because he knows my predicament, he said he would leave at 5 am.
I’m thinking about what it will be like to sleep in a Fiat 500, which is what I’m driving; but the Forest Service suggested I stay in one of their bunkhouses in a borrowed sleeping bag. It is supposed to get quite cold tonight. So that is exactly what I did. I slept in their bunkhouse. Sarah even brought me a tea bag to help calm my nerves.
I had the bunkhouse all to myself, because everyone was away. I know that the Hamilton fire has gotten pretty big and is threatening another town. I wondered if that was where everyone was. This is a massive national forest.
Finally, about 9 am in the morning, the tow truck driver Dan Gunter from Orofino Body Shop drove all the way from Orofino, picked me up at the Kelly Work Station, drove another hour and a half to my car, picked up the car, and then drove me and the car all the way back four hours west.
But it still isn’t over! At the tire place in Orofino, they didn’t have the tire I needed for replacement, so we had to drive even further west to Lewiston, Idaho.
Now I am right at seven hours away from Great Falls, it is 2 pm, I lose an hour crossing the mountains, and I fly out of Great Falls by 6:20 a.m. tomorrow. And I still need to eat three meals and sleep. Oh boy! This is not looking good.
Meantime, I have had no cell service for over 24 hours. I made one contact with Jamie’s cell and left a message just in case anyone is looking for me.
Then I have about a 200-mile drive back across the Rockies with still no cell service, but the good news is the tire place was waiting on me and changed the tire in record time. I am out of there and on my way by 2:30 pm. Love Les Schaub Tire Service both in Orofino and especially in Lewiston. Great guys!
This area of Idaho reminded me of my home county, only this is a distance out here of about 200 miles. Everyone seemed to know each other. The forest rangers knew Dan personally. Not only has he towed several people out of here, but he also hunts and fishes in the national forest. We got stopped twice in the forest by other people that he knew.
When we drove through a little small town on our way to Orofino, someone saw us passing and commented to him on the radio. They said, ” Hey Dan, that’s a new car you’re towing there.” He said, “Yep.” They said, “What kind of car is that?” Just general gab. Another guy made comments several more miles down the road. Dan and I talked all the way to Lewiston. The whole experience made me feel at home.
To make a longer story shorter I got to Great Falls at 10:30 pm. Whereupon I still had to pack. I started the next day at 3:30 am.
I had planned to follow Lewis’s return trail back as far as Great Falls, but I’ll save that for another trip. He and Clark split up at Traveler’s Rest and took different routes back to the mouth of the Yellowstone River on the Missouri where they next met. I chose Lewis’s return because I followed Clark’s return on an earlier trip.
So this is the end of my travels on this portion of the Lewis & Clark Trail.  I’ll add a new section to my blog called “Following Old Trails” when I get back home. This section will be where these type of posts are archived.

 

 

Day 5-Lewis & Clark Cross the Rockies

by Filed Under: Following Old Trails, Travel Leave a Comment

First, I apologize for not being able to get this to your earlier, but under the circumstances, I believe you will understand. I will run this post this morning, and the other post this afternoon if I have a good wifi or cellular connection. That has been the problem for the past few days. Day 6 could have been a nightmare, but I’ll let my next post explain what happened. 
August 2, Tuesday

I stayed in Missoula, Montana on Monday night, which is less than ten miles away from Lolo. So this morning I circled back to Lolo to tour Traveler’s Rest State Park. As you may remember, this is where Lewis & Clark camped before crossing the Rocky Mountains using an ancient trail, an old Nez Perce trail.  

Even today one can see why this became a resting spot not only for the Corp of Discovery but also for the Salish and several other tribes who were friendly to each other. There are tall grasses, shady cottonwood trees, and plentiful game. There is also a sparkling clear stream that Lewis named Traveler’s Rest which runs through the ancient campsite. The stream is now called Lolo Creek. 

Lolo Creek at Traveler's Rest

Lolo Creek

Speaking of plentiful game, In the middle of the day I saw a deer walk across the field in front of the state park entrance, which is on SR 12, the road that runs westward across the Rockies. Above this road on the northern ridge line runs the ancient trail mentioned earlier. The Nez Perce used this trail to get to the eastern plains’ buffalo grounds.

When the expedition got here, they would have noticed several tepee poles which were left here as community property; but the Corps made it a practice to always set up camp away from the Indians’ camp, but still nearby. They camped across the creek. It was in September of 1805. 

The Salish Camp At Traveler’s Rest

First, I listened to a brief lecture from a knowledgeable staff member in the visitor’s center. She talked about the area and the expedition, and then I toured the small museum in the center.  

Most fascinating is an 1803 gun on display. Lewis’s journal says that he acquired fifteen rifles from the US Armory and Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry before departing. We don’t know what model, though.   

An 1803 rifle that may have belonged to the Lewis & Clark Expedition

We do know that the Armory began production of a new shorter version of Model 1792 in late 1803 or early 1804. In late 1803 Lewis had already left west for the expedition. This rifle here on display is one of the first fifteen and would have been a prototype and produced earlier than standard issue.  

Many believe that Lewis would have wanted the lightest and best rifles available. It is believed he may have gotten fifteen of these to take west. This rifle is serial #12. It was bought in an online auction. The new owner noticed the significance of the serial number, whereas its previous owner did not.

Afterwards, I went on their self-guided half mile trail loop using interpretive stops and a brochure to learn more about their encampment. At the first stop I was joined by a gentlemen who turned out to be a park ranger.  

I was the only person walking the loop, so he joined me; and we walked the rest of the loop as he explained what took place at each stop. It was good to meet Mike and discuss the expedition with an expert.

What makes this state park unique in the Lewis & Clark story is that this is where archeologists have archeological proof as to the exact place where they camped. As was usual on the expedition, it was a military style encampment.  

This is where Lewis & Clark’s campsite was at Traveler’s Rest.

They can tell where the three kitchens of the campsite were placed. Because two of the men were taking medicine for intestinal problems and because that medicine contained mercury, they know where the latrines were located, too. The pills they took were called Dr. Rush’s Bilous Pills, also known as thunderclappers. I’m afraid that their pain was our gain.

This is where the two latrines were at Traveler’s Rest.

Also, the men used the fires to make repairs and bullets for their guns, and the archeologists found a small lead puddle in one of the fire sites.  

They stayed here three days so they could prepare themselves for their westward journey over the mountains. They hunted game, and probably gazed at the snow-covered Lolo peak in the distance.  

Today, next to the campsite sits a very tall and old witness fir tree. It was here long before Lewis & Clark passed through. They did a core sample on the tree to determine its age, and it was there when Lewis & Clark came through here in 1805. It witnessed their historical expedition.  

This lodgepole pine at Traveler’s Rest witnessed the camping of Lewis & Clsrk

The Corp of Discovery broke camp and with their Indian guide left Traveler’s Rest on September 11, 2005 turning west to take the Nez Perce trail over the daunting Bitterroot Mountains, two hundred miles of mountainous terrain. Today, much of this trail is called the Lolo Motorway. I struck out on Montana 12 traveling west, too. 

The Lolo Motorway Trail is an upper road that follows the ridge line, but it is a 100-mile long dirt and gravel road. If this were the beginning of the vacation, I would do it in a heartbeat; but tomorrow is my last day and I have to be as far back as Missoula by tomorrow night. Also, I didn’t find out about it until about noon today, too late to do it today.

I’ll save this for when I do the next segment of the Lewis & Clark Trail. I’ll begin that one in Missoula and end it near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

SR 12 runs through a long valley before climbing up to Lolo Pass. Lolo Creek runs through this valley, and the expedition followed this creek until they got to Lolo springs where they camped and then moved on to cross Lolo pass.  

At Lolo Pass there is an Idaho Rest Area and Information Center. I walked through their small interpretive center and walked around outside, too. This would have been a good place to take a hike.

On the other side of Lolo Pass they began to go up high to follow the ridges on the ridge line. My drive down below is through great forests and running next to the Lochsa River. It is a beautiful drive. The sun came down at just the right angle to create thousands of diamonds on the water.

It was explained by one of the roadside signs that the land up here is laid out in a checkerboard pattern with every other plot of land owned by the federal government and Plum Creek Timber Company. I remembered them telling me how Plum Creek lands were bought from the railroad who received the lands from the federal government when the railroads were built out here. I used to represent Plum Creek before the Florida legislature.

But Lewis & Clark’s Shoshone guide brought the expedition down at one point near what is today Whitehouse Pond. This was a Lochsa fishery. They thought he was lost when he had to take them back up north, back to the high ridges. Lochsa Canyon which State Road 12 follows had too many cliffs and gorges for a horseback ride down below.

I am beginning to get a little worried as it is approaching 6 pm, and I’ve seen very few places to dine and lodge for the evening. I got lucky, though, because I rolled into Kamiah, Idaho by 6:30 pm. I had a Mexican meal and stayed at the Lewis & Clark Resort, which has been converted into a motel/KOA campground. It was very nice to be in a campground where I’ve always felt the safest. I took a long walk around its streets and it is quite cool and nice up here. A dry front is moving through and it is really nice to hear the wind in the pines and aspens. Aspens have a different sound in the wind. It is more of a rustling sound.  

I drove over five hours (with lots of stops, though), and am still not out of the Rockies. Poor Lewis & Clark. They must have thought that they would never get out of these mountains.

Speaking of Lewis and Clark, I’ve already discussed William Clark, but the success of this expedition included both men. The two men complimented each other’s skills and traits, providing for strong leadership. 

Meriwether Lewis was quiet, intense and serious, the opposite of Clark’s outgoing and gregarious temperament. Both men were resourceful, intelligent and kept good journals of the experience.  

Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis

Lewis was over six feet tall and stayed in great physical shape. Like Clark he was also a skilled back woodsmen. He was fiercely loyal, disciplined but also flexible. He had a sharp eye for flora and fauna, and his detailed journal entries reflect this. He also learned herbal medicine from his mother, which would also be useful to the expedition.  

I am very close to the town which is located where the Corp descended down from the ridges. I plan to end my westward journey there tomorrow. 

Day 4:  Lewis & Clark Meet Sacajawea’s Family

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Using Lemhi Pass, Lewis with an advance party of three men crossed the Rockies on foot. Imagine when he realized that the Rockies were not like the Appalachians which are a single range of mountains with many passes. The Rockies are many ranges with few passes and rivers full of boulders and rapids. They now knew that there was no easy portage, there was no northwest passage,and they had to have horses to cross over.  

While Lewis was returning and still on other side of Lemhi Pass he ran into some Shoshone women gathering food, and they took him to their village. There he met Chief Cameahwait. This village turned out to be the Lemhi Shoshone, Sacajawea’s people, though Lewis wouldn’t know this until later.

He, his three men, and Chief Cameahwait with fifteen warriors crossed back over Lemhi pass to the east and traveled back down the Beaverhead. They met Clark and some of his men near Camp Fortunate.  

Imagine everyone’s surprise when Sacajawea and a childhood friend of hers immediately recognized one another. And then imagine Sacajawea’s happiness when she realized that Chief Cameahwait was her brother. It is said that she cried tears of joy. That is when the expedition realized that these were Sacajawea’s people.  

She told her brother that these white men needed to cross the mountains and needed to trade for horses. He told her that he would trade horses for guns.

Sacajawea was still a young girl but also a young wife with a baby during the expedition. She did not speak English but her husband Charbonneau could speak Shoshone. He did not speak English either. His native tongue was French. 

I learned a lot about her while at the museum in Great Falls. I even got to try on what she would have worn. It was made of animal skin and was heavy. Good for winter, but not so sure about summertime.

I find it peculiar that their journals always refer to her baby as hers but not Charbonneau’s. I’ll let you speculate on that peculiarity on your own.  

The expedition traded for horses from Sacajawea’s people, and then they left behind their canoes and some supplies which they hid for their return trip. Now they are traveling with loaded packsaddles. They crossed Lemhi Pass, and Sacajawea was truly back home, though just for a visit.

In Salmon where I spent the night, there is an Interpretive Center which highlights her life and the lives of her people, the Shoshone, which are also called the Snake Indians. As soon as I heard this I wondered if this is because they lived in the land of many snakes. I sure saw a lot of those sidewinders in a very short length of time yesterday.

So I left this morning from Salmon, Idaho to follow north the trail on the Salmon River, just as the expedition did. The river is very navigable here, but won’t be soon up ahead.

Late in August of 1805 Clark left with an advance party to explore this river and the rugged canyon it flowed through. He came back and reported that the Salmon is almost one continuous rapid and passage with their canoes is entirely impossible.  

It is 110 miles north to Lolo Pass where they will cross the rest of the Rockies. The drive by the Salmon River and its forks was really nice. I realized that I could have driven farther last night. There are several nice inns and lodges on the river plus restaurants and at least one gas station about twenty miles north of Salmon. 

On their way north they were looking for a way over Idaho’s mountain barrier. They struck out without a trail to follow, but their experienced Shoshone guide showed them the way. They followed a difficult ridge top divide. The mountains here were treacherous, and they were mostly wet and cold as they crossed the snow covered ridges. They experienced the season’s first snow.

I was on US 93 as it climbed through the mountains, and this drive is beautiful. It keeps switching back and forth and climbing higher into a big ponderosa pine and fir forest.  

The experts who have studied the Lewis & Clark journals agree on most about the Lewis & Clark Trail, but not this part through the mountains. It was a difficult crossing as the mountains closed in around the creek, and they had to walk the horses on the steep sides of the mountains. Several packhorses slipped, fell and injured themselves.  

The path they took is lost, and this is why the area is called Lost Trail Pass. I stopped at a rest area here. It sits on the Idaho/Montana state line at the Continental Divide. It is beautiful up here with yellow flowers everywhere. I packed a lunch and ate it at one of the picnic tables while Reading a book. It is called “Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy” by Carlos Eire. I’m a long way from Miami. But it is a very good book.

Left the pass and came down into the Bitterroot Valley. Here is where the expedition found the Salish Indians who were very good to them. The place was at Ross’s Hole and the meeting took place on September 4, 1805.  

The expedition was very tired and hungry. The Salish gave them blankets and some fresh horses in a trade. One of the journalers said that these were the most likable and honest “savages” he had ever seen.  

These Indians were named the Flathead Indians by Lewis. Their heads were not shaped any differently so we’re not sure why he gave them this English name.

This valley is where these people spend their winters. They gathered bitterroot, wild onions and everything else to prepare each year. 

There were problems with the language though. No one in the party could speak their language, but there was a Shoshone boy living with the tribe. He could speak both the language of the Salish and Shoshone, so he and Sacajawea could communicate.  

She in turn translated to her husband what he said, her husband translated it in French to one of the members of the expedition, who then translated it into English for the rest of the Corps. It was slow going but it worked.  

The Salish people gave them their knowledge of the area, including information about the trail that would lead them over the mountains ( Lolo Pass) and to the Pacific Ocean. The tribe told the Corps that they were the first white men any of them had ever seen.

I ran into a lot of smoke north of Darby, Montana. There is a forest fire nearby. It got so smoky that you could not see the surrounding mountains in one area. To the left side of US 93 going north all the roads for about 5 miles were blocked off by law-enforcement. I also passed by a staging area for forest fire equipment and people. This must be quite a fire.

I finally got to Travelers Rest which is very near Lolo, Montana. This is where Louis and Clark came to find the trail crossing over the Rockies. They camped here for three days from September 9 through the 11th in 1805. 

They named it Travelers Rest because this is where they stopped to prepare, rest themselves, and rest the horses before attempting to go farther. They also stopped here to confirm that there was an Indian trail up the Blackfoot River to the Pacific Northwest.   I got here too late to tour the State Park, so I’ll have more on that tomorrow,

Game was plentiful so they ate well. To the west you can see snow covered Lolo Peak. They decided to follow the old Indian trail and with their Shoshone guide the 33 members of the expedition left here on September 11, 1805. 

They would also stay here again on their return in the end of June, 1806. 

 

Day 3:  Lewis & Clark Goes West of the Rockies

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Yesterday, I left Three Forks and was on my way to Beaverhead Rock State Park. My route ran between State Road 2 and US 287 until Whitehall, Montana.  

The road followed the Jefferson River, so it was perfect. This time of year the water is low. Wonder if it was the same for Lewis & Clark? They traveled this area in canoes, though; and we know that much of the time here they walked or waded and pulled the canoes with ropes. Don’t you know they were being watched from high up above in the hills and mountains?

  
If they were able to ride in the canoes, they poled them much like our current poling boats. They seldom rowed them anymore.  So I believe the water must have been low.

The river flowed through a narrow canyon, near Lahood Park, Montana on SR 2; and I wondered what this looked like to them in 1805. It is still narrow today, and that was after widening it at the river’s edge to add a two-lane highway and a railroad. This is a beautiful ride especially here.

I need to describe what it is like driving through this area. These little two lanes roads winding through the mountains with their potholes and buckled road beds have a 70 mile per hour speed limit. I’m thinking, “why bother”. It is too fast even for me. And I’m the daughter that Dad nicknamed “Leadfoot,” but I’m not one out here. Not compared to these people.

Finally, I got to a little town called Whitehall, and stopped at the Legends Family Restaurant. They must have been short on help, because they told me to seat myself; but there was only one table and it still had a cup and newspaper at it. It was 1 pm. I set down, and the waitress took my order and never bothered to clear the table. I just pushed it to the other side.

Menus everywhere now are full of fast foods. I guess because that is what people want, so I ordered another chef salad. This one was lettuce, ham, roast beef, and a few sprinkles of cheese. Not much to write home about.

Finally I got to Two Bridges, Montana. Chuck would love this place. It has more fly fishing and outdoor shops than it has churches. Of course, I knew what that meant. There had to be a great fly fishing stream(s) nearby. 

I turned right in the middle of town on Montana 41 and immediately crossed over the Beaverhead River. The Beaverhead is one of two rivers that creates the Jefferson River. The other was the Ruby. They chose to follow the Beaverhead so now I’m following it, too.

I stopped at a little park on the river and took some pictures. It is a clear stream not very deep and quite cool but not cold. 

Afterwards, the road took me through the Jefferson River Valley where the Corps struggled to pull their boats up this river. This valley was an old Indian corridor, and they found an old trail. The men became much fatigued during this part of the expedition. The rocks in the river bruised their feet.

At one point while driving, Canon in D done with violins began playing on the radio. Within a short time I realized that this music was made for just such a drive. The wind in the fields seemed to roll with the music. I could not have planned a more majestic moment. 

I finally got to Beaverhead Rock which sits right beside the Beaverhead River.  

Sacajawea when seeing this rock, knew that her people were nearby. The rock was a landmark for several tribes who moved through this valley to and from their buffalo hunting grounds.

She was captured near here by another tribe when she was a girl of 12 and taken east where she was sold as a slave to Charbonneau. She became one of two of his wives. So she had come full circle and was back in her native lands.  

Again, this is a state park where I can find no entrance. So I studied the area and a Google Earth map, where I noticed a gravel road which enters it just before crossing the river. The road pulled off just before a flashing sign that warns about a coming curve. So I drove the road into the park, but it simply surrounds the rock–the road and the park. 

The rock is about 150′ high and made of Madison limestone. The road went around its base so closely to its cliffs that I worried a little about falling or calving sides. The vegetation was cattails and tall grasses along with several different kinds of wild flowers–yellows and purples.  

Every afternoon the wind picks up, and here the grasses are blowing in waves. I can see how this was special to per people. It was also a meeting place for them.

The Indians thought this rock looked like a swimming beaver, thus the name they gave it. 

 I drove on to Dillon, Montana and turned north on the old US 91. Just north of town is a rock called Clark’s lookout. I found the entrance to the park just past the rock on the right. This one is well marked.

The Beaverhead River runs by here, too. It is simply a deep stream at this point. Clark climbed up on this rock and used its height to make measurements and notations for his mapmaking. 

William Clark was from a famous revolutionary war family. Two of his brothers were revolutionary war generals. In fact one brother George was the original person that President Jefferson asked to lead this expedition. George declined but recommended his brother William.   

I got interested in the Clark family many years ago when I read the historical fiction novel “From Sea to Shining Sea” by James Alexander Thom. They were an amazing family and several played key roles in our nation.  

President Jefferson then asked Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. Lewis in turn asked for his friend William Clark to co-captain the expedition with him.

William Clark had much to bring to the expedition’s success. He was outgoing and had an easy temperament. He was also a surveyor, mapmaker, frontiersman, experienced woodsman, and former military commander. In fact he had been Lewis’s commander earlier when they were in the military. This is how they became friends.

Actually, the Corps of Discovery was a military expedition commanded by the two co-captains. Before they left Illinois, Clark drilled the men military style to get them in shape for what was to become. Capt. Clark was the military commander on the expedition.  

I left Dillon and got on Interstate 15 going south. About twenty miles later I got off on SR 324. near the Clark Dam. This dam creates the tail waters of the Beaverhead River. By the way Lewis and Clark still called this river the Jefferson, even up to this point.  

The reservoir formed by the dam flooded the canyon here, and this canyon is where Lewis and Clark realized that the river from this point on was not navigable. Their travel by boat came to an end here.  

President Jefferson ordered them to go by boat as far west as possible. It is here that they ran out of navigable waters. 
Now they are desperately looking for horses in order to cross over to find a river on the other side of the continental divide. The group had seen no Indians since the Mandan Village back in North Dakota four months earlier. Winter is coming, and time is running out. They needed to cross the mountains as soon as possible.

They camped in this canyon, and it was called Camp Fortunate. I stopped at a little wayside park sitting high over the reservoir. There is a full scale model here of one of the canoes they used.  

Lewis struck out further west on foot to find a pass through the mountains. Clark stopped at Camp Fortunate with the rest of the men, including Charbonneau, Sacajawea and her baby. I left the lookout and went west like Lewis did.

I continued on Montana 324 looking for Lemhi Pass where Lewis & Clark crossed over the continental divide on their way to the Pacific. Clark was so sure that they would pick up the Salmon River soon after crossing that he called this a portage on his original map. He later changed it.

I continued south toward Tendoy, Idaho to search for a west entrance to the Lemhi Pass Road. I don’t have instructions to the east side of the pass. I got very lucky though, because I found the road’s east entrance on the way. Following the Lewis & Clark Trail is not so easy some days. Today is better than most.

This entrance travels over USDA Forest Service gravel roads which eventually go over Lemhi Pass. This way will be about 25-30 miles. These roads are on an old Indian Road that Lewis and Clark took to cross the Continental Divide. There is a sign at the entrance showing the way through the pass.  

On this side of the pass it is all gravel roads through ranch lands with cattle gaps, some old wood fencing, and then a national forest. Thankfully, I took a picture of the map on the sign before I left the entrance. It would come in handy later, because there are no signs marking the way once you leave the entrance.

This drive is the highlight so far of my trip. It rolls over private ranch lands. The views are beautiful. Here is where one of the party stood with a foot on each side of the once mighty river that is now a stream.

The road also later became a stagecoach road. One of the ranchers owns one of the old coaches and displayed it next to one of his barns.  His hme was the old stage station.

Just as I approached the upper canyon, the road narrowed to a single lane and eventually entered a forest of conifers as it switchbladed back and forth up to a saddle. At the top of the saddle are more signs with information about Lewis’s pass through here in August of 1805. 

A rock marker in the saddle shows where the continental divide is. I walked around a little but was a bit wary. This is because as I drove up I saw in the distance either a man or a bear walk off into the woods down the road a ways.  

I thought it was a man until I saw the sign warning about bears in the area. Then I wasn’t so sure. Surely, it was a man, though, because he was walking on two legs. I haven’t a clue where he went but there was a trail there that dropped down the mountain over the side. So I was probably safe. Otherwise I was up there all by myself.

The signs say that this pass here on the Montana/Idaho border looks much like it did when the expedition came through here in 1805. Lewis crossed it first on August 12. He unfurled the American flag on the other side and for the first time in history the flag flew west of the Rockie Mountains. The views are stunning on both sides.

At the top of the saddle the road forked four ways. Three looked like good easy roads but one of them dropped off down a steep decline and is full of small rocks. I looked at my GPS but there is no service up here. I have no idea which road to take.  

Thankfully, I took a screen shot of the map down below. It said that I needed to take Road 013. Oh Great! That’s the bad one with the rocks and the steep descent. I guess the rocks are there to help me keep going?  

I rolled up to its edge and thought, “Well, I’ve been on worse.” The whole situation reminded me of Mulholland Drive.

I began my descent and slipped and slid several hundred feet down to a turn where it quickly evened out. Down below the road is narrow and winding, but the rest of the ride was a piece of cake. On the east side of the saddle were rolling ranch lands. On this side it is deep forests.

There are also snakes. It is almost 7 pm, and I’m beginning to think that maybe they came out on the roadbed to stay warmer because it was already cooling down.

It was very windy up at the saddle, and I noticed that it was less hot than down below. I passed four snakes total, all on the west side of the pass. The last one was a large nasty rattlesnake.

Speaking of animals I’ve seen quite a few this trip. At Tower Rock yesterday I saw two big horn sheep coming down some rocks from high above. They are amazing rock climbers. And today I’ve seen several deer.  

One jumped out into the road a little ahead of me and then saw me and ran back across in front of my car. I threw everything into the floorboards, but missed the deer. Another time, I stopped to read a historical sign near a pretty tree-lined field and surprised a doe and two of her yearlings who were grazing nearby. They ran off a little ways but I got a picture of her.

Captain Lewis and his three men as an advance party spent a night on the west side of the pass and would go all the way to the Columbia before returning to his expedition back on the east side of the pass. I’ll continue there with that story tomorrow.

I finally got back down from the pass, but I’m in Idaho. I started driving north on Idaho 28 toward my next stop Traveler’s Rest. This is the Nez Perce Trail. And I’m also still following the Lewis & Clark Trail.  

I have no idea how long I’ll drive before stopping for the night. It is two and a half hours to Traveler’s Rest in Lolo, Montana. I have fruit to snack on and a meal in the car just in case, but did not need the meal. 

 I rolled into Salmon, Idaho on the Salmon River about thirty minutes later and found a good restaurant, The Junkyard Bistro, and a surprisingly good Super8 hotel.

I am worn out, but it was a great day.

.  

Day 2:  Lewis & Clark Find the Missouri Headwaters

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Day 2 on the Lewis & Clark Trail started really slow. I almost didn’t publish Day 1. It was a Saturday morning in my hotel which was full of wedding guests. Lots of young people usually means the wifi is brought to its knees.  

I stayed up late but couldn’t outlast the night owls. Then the next morning they were up and at it early as evidenced by the full pool at 9 am. These are family folks, and they are glad to see each other.

When the wifi is under this much pressure, downloaded pictures disappear and reappear at will. I was ready to pull my hair out.

Finally, I’m on the road. I-15 follows the Missouri River fairly well; but I chose to drive Old US 91. I am glad I did, because there was very little traffic and the scenery was awesome.  

This highway follows the banks of the river and crosses it numerous times, as well as I-15. It was interesting to see the landscape go from the prairies to the foothills of the mountains.  

I stopped in Cascades, Montana at a little local town diner called The Angus. I am only two pounds away from my goal weight and determined to reach it. I’ve been on Jenny Craig for six weeks now. I gained more than usual when I stayed in the hospital during Pam’s illness. 

So I ordered a chef salad because the menu is basically bar food. I was hoping for good old fashioned meat and vegetables. It was a great Chef’s salad, though.

Back on Old US 91 going south, the river is following along on my left. At one point I stopped to take a picture of a couple of mule deer wading. The scenery and views are awesome here. 

Quickly, though, I began to notice a change in the topography. Ahead were black volcanic rocks jutting toward the sky. I am on my way to Tower Rock which Lewis described in his journal. I can already see what I think is Tower Rock ahead.

Tower Rock is over 400 feet high, and it is made of volcanic ash. It marks the beginning during their time of unknown territory. It is 1805 and there have been no mountain men to blaze the trail before them. There are no maps, just the vocal directions of the native peoples. Captain Clark’s mapmaking abilities are about to be put to the test.

I feel fairly comfortable, though, because I have a cell phone with GPS and a good signal because these roads are so near the interstate.  

The land around Tower Rock is a small state park, though I had a difficult time finding its entrance. The entrance is down behind a county dump site. You literally must drive down and around the dump site, and there are no signs. I cannot imagine why this is like it is.  

Behind the dumps are kiosks and a rest room. There is a quarter-mile long path with a sign that warns of rattlesnakes. Me thinks they don’t want anyone to stop here. The signs explain the significance of Tower Rock.

Lewis climbed high here and could see a well worn Indian trail following the eastern side of the mountains as it went out of sight from the north to the south. This, it turns out, is an ancient path that runs from up in Canada all the way down into Mexico following the east side of the Rockies. It is called the Old North Trail.

The Missouri here begins to wind through black rock canyons. Old US 91 here is called Recreation Road, and the name fits. There are floaters and boaters everywhere, and some of them are fly fishing. This is a beautiful drive.

It was a little hard to follow Old US 91, because its name kept changing. Sometimes, it was called a frontage road and sometimes it was given a county road number. Still, it was easy to follow when I realized that it mostly follows the Missouri River through this part of the state.  

Finally, I reached the headwaters of the Missouri which Lewis & Clark reached by the end of July in 1805. They are already worried about winter. They now know that they will not reach the Pacific and return in one season. The expedition is taking much longer than anyone expected.

While I was reading the historical signs in a little park near the entrance, I noticed three very old wooden buildings in the distance. One of the signs said that this is all that is left of Gallatin City. I took a picture of the old hotel.

There was also a sign about John Colter, who was one of the members of the expedition and who returned years later to this area to trap. I will let you read the historical sign yourself, but I also read that the Indians said that he was stripped of his clothing by the women of their camp in sport and that he ran off without his clothes. Either way his friend was killed.

When the explorers got to this area in late July of 1805, they first passed a large tributary and then just about a mile upstream they came to two more tributaries. They felt they had found the headwaters of the Missouri.

It occurred to me that here I am on the last days of July, but 211 years later. I stand on the banks of the Missouri just down river from where the two streams converge.  

They first called the three tributaries the three forks of the Missouri. They could have easily named them the East Fork, the West Fork and the Middle Fork. A discussion ensued between Lewis and Clark.

The Lewis & Clark expedition which was also called the Corps of Discovery camped near the confluence of the Jefferson and Madison Rivers for three days. The terrain here is flat again as we are in a large valley.  

They quickly explored the area. All were uncharted. Because they were certain these three tributaries merged to form the Missouri, they named them after their president and two of his cabinet officers, Secretary of State James Madison and Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. All three of these men helped plan the expedition. These rivers became the Jefferson, the Madison and the Gallatin, names which remain the same today.

One big question haunted them while they were here, though. Which river do they follow? If they chose wrongly, they would have to backtrack and face the possibility of a winter in the Rockies.  

A small search party was sent out to assess the situation; but because the north fork had the most water flow, they chose it. They ascended the Jefferson.

So that is where I will stop for today. I drove on into Three Forks which is known for its historic Sacajawea Inn, and I had a nice dinner there at Pompei’s Grill.  

The Inn was mostly full except for a single room, a suite that was $200. Since I wasn’t interested in buying a piece of furniture for their hotel, I went on down the street and stayed in the Lewis and Clark Hotel. I ended up buying a smaller piece of furniture for them. It was over priced too.  

They said the Lewis and Clark Hotel was historic, too; but I beg to differ. It was established in 1964, and since that was within my lifetime, I would rather not think that it or myself is old enough to be considered historic. Just gag me with a stick. 

How to Plan a Lewis & Clark Vacation

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Years ago, again while Chuck was fishing, I started following the Lewis and Clark Trail by car. I visited many of their campsites and spent silent moments in several interpretive museums along the way.  

It was an amazing trip, which began in St. Louis, Missouri and ended in Great Falls, Montana. I traveled as far as the fall line where they had to portage for several days before moving on to find the source of the great Missouri.

The Lewis and Clark Trail is a water trail, and today with so many dams it is impossible to do it the way they did it. The Missouri was their highway to the west, and they were looking for a river or connecting rivers that would take them all the way to the Pacific. Their expedition was commanded by the third president himself Thomas Jefferson. They explored this newly bought territory and brought back detailed journals and specimens of new plants and animals collected.

By the time they got to the Great Falls area, they were in canoes having sent back their ship along with several of their men and the catalogued items collected by that time.

I am on my way to Great Falls to travel another section of this trail. I’ll try to blog daily about what I find, but please don’t hold me to it. I’ll do the best I can.
On my first trip, I found that my best information for following the trail was online through the National Park Service. You can find it here.

Best of all is their map showing the Lewis and Clark camp sites. It makes it very easy to create an itinerary.  

Below are a few pictures from my first trip on this trail. The scenery was amazing.

The campsites were mostly well marked.

And the Interpretive Centers were very well done.

Inside Lewis’s 55-foot long keelboat

Lewis & Clark Keelboat 

I look forward to this second section of the Lewis and Clark Trail. If you want to join me daily on the trail, sign up for email updates. You can find it on my blog in the upper right hand corner of my blog page. Every time I post, you will get an email dorecting you to my blog.  

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