Browse our site and relive the Lewis and Clark adventure

Explore the Lewis and Clark trail along Highway 12 in Idaho

Lewis & Clark Expedition Trail
Idaho, Montana, Washington

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HISTORICAL SITES ALONG THE TRAIL

Heart of the Monster

As you continue your journey down the rugged and beautiful Lochsa River canyon, parallel to the actual ridgetop trail of the Corp of Discovery, you will arrive at the little settlement of Lowell, Idaho. Here there are limited services but meals and beds are available at this resort area. Here also the Lochsa joins the Selway River forming the Middlefork of the Clearwater River. The Selway is classified as a National Wild and Scenic River. The Indian word Sel-wah means “smooth water” but this water has some of the more difficult rapids of any western river during its short rafting and kayaking season.

As you travel on west along the Middlefork Clearwater River RVers will find a nights rest at U.S. Forest Service Wild Goose Campground or have a picnic and swim at Three Devils picnic area.

The first real community you will encounter since leaving Montana is Kooskia, at the junction of U.S. 12 and State Highway 13. This small town was laid out in 1895 on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. A Highways 13 and 14 side trip from here will lead you along the Southfork of the Clearwater, another pristine stream, into the early day gold mining areas of Golden, Elk City, Red River and Dixie. Services are available some 80 miles from Kooskia at Elk City, established on a beautiful mountain meadow in August, 1861.

Back on Highway 12, seven miles west of Kooskia, you will enter Kamiah, Lewis and Clark’s “Long Camp.” The Kamiah valley was the winter camping ground of the Nez Perce Indians. Here they fished for salmon and manufactured ropes of hemp bark. Lewis and Clark camped here for several weeks in the spring of 1806 waiting for the snow to melt so they could continue eastward across the mountains.

About 1.7 miles southeast of Kamiah on Highway 12 is a rock mound known to the Nez Perce as the “Heart of the Monster.” According to ancient legend this landmark was the birthplace of the Nez Perce nation. In the same vicinity is the oldest Protestant church in continuous use in Idaho. It was built by the Nez Perce in 1874 and nearby, still standing, is the small house which was the home of Sue McBeth, who came to Kamiah in 1874 as a missionary to the Indians.

You will want to spend a little time here exploring and visiting the museum which houses the bones of a Wooly Mammoth discovered and excavated near the Kamiah city limits.

This month our featured site is :

From the land of Lewis and Clark

Idaho's Finest Natural Water

On September 26, 1805, on their Voyage of Discovery to the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the Corps of Discovery reached the confluence of the North Fork and the Middle Fork of the river called the Kooskooskee in the Nez Perce language. The adventurers established Canoe Camp and built dugout canoes to continue their journey, leaving October 7, 1805.

The remarkable clarity of the Kooskooskee River inspired the present day name: The Clearwater River. Elk River and Looking Glass aquifer are 30 miles north of Canoe Camp at elevation 2826 feet in the Clearwater Mountains in the northwest corner of Clearwater County, Idaho Clear Mountain Spring Water is drawn directly from a bore hole in the Looking Glass aquifer to the water plant where it is filtered down to one micron, put into bottles and given a touch of ozone. The bottles are capped and boxed, 24 to a case, and shipped to a discerning water aficionado. Our water needs no reverse osmosis, no remanufacturing of any kind... just as it was when Lewis and Clark came by.

Now distributing in Southern Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California To order or for questions or comments call 1-208-826-3630 Box 144 Elk River Id. 8382
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