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.
Neat!
Thank you.
Although there’s nothing like actually being there to feel the wind, to hear the rushing waters, and to see the big skies and broad horizons, I love the vicarious travel. It reminds me of a time when people paid the price of admission to hear world travelers tell their stories of foreign lands and exotic people. The Lewis and Clark story is pure Americana of 208 years ago when people were made of iron. Someday, I too, hope to retrace their steps but for now, I’ll settle for your accounts. Thanks, for sharing.
Wonderful comments. Yes, you were right. Louis and Clark is pure Americana. So glad you were reading.
Have you posted photos to Pinterest or Flickr?
Yes on Pinterest, but I hadn’t even thought about Flickr. Maybe I should. I’ll look into it.