Explore the Lewis and Clark trail along Highway 12 in Idaho
Trip planning along the Lewis and Clark Trail in Idaho on Highway 12

Lewis & Clark Expedition Trail
Idaho, Montana, Washington

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Lewis & Clark January Newsletter

By Cheeta Brown

While those of you driving non-mountain vehicles and enjoying a visit to the Kamiah valley, Lewis and Clark’s “Long Camp” and the scenic Elk City and Buffalo Hump country, this writer will return to “Colt Killed Camp” and Powell Ranger Station to guide the vehicles equipped to travel the rough mountain track of the Lolo Motorway.

The Motorway offers views that are little changed from what the Corp of Discovery experienced two centuries ago. About four miles down river from Powell Ranger Station on Highway 12 is the U.S. Forest Service Wendover Staging Area. This is the only place along the Lochsa River that the actual trail and Highway 12 coincide. You can access the Motorway here by traveling 3500 feet in altitude up the mountain to the top of Wendover Ridge and Forest Service Road 500. William Clark wrote it was “winding in every direction to get up the Steep assents….” It is very little different today.

You are reminded this is not a typical road. It is narrow, rough and far from services. It is best to drive a tough vehicle with high clearance and good tires. Towing trailers or motor homes is prohibited during the permit period and certainly not recommended at other times, as well. Four wheel-drive could come in handy along the way. Pack plenty of food and water and extra fuel.

Climbing the mountain from Wendover, you will reach the ridge top near Cayuse Junction. Traveling west you pass Indian Post Office and the Sinque Hole, an unmistakable landmark mentioned in Joseph Whitehouse’s journal on September 17, 1805. He wrote “We came about 16 Miles this day, & encamped at a small branch on a Mountain; near a Round deep Sink hole which was full of water.”

There are Forest Service interpretive signs along the way pointing out the points of interest and places where the Motorway and the Lewis and Clark and Nez Perce Trails intersect.

You will pass Indian Grave and The Smoking Place and a short hike to Castle Butte lookout offers a view of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness, the Selway Crags and to the north the Clearwater Mountains.

On down the trail is Greensward Camp, Dry Camp and Sherman Peak which some historians think Clark wrote of on September 18, 1805 “from the top of a high part of the mountain at 20 miles I had a view of an emence Plain and leavel Country to the S.W. & West at a great distance”. On a clear day the Camas Prairie, site of the current towns of Grangeville and Cottonwood, can be seen from here.

A few miles further, in the vicinity of Bowl Butte, the party dropped into Hungry Creek. Meriwether Lewis wrote on Sept. 19, 1805 “after leaving the ridge we ascended and decended several steep mountains in the distance of 6 miles when we struck a Creek about 15 yards wide.” This area remains much like Lewis and Clark found it, rugged, dangerous, free of roads and few trails.

Join us next month as we finish the journey in the mountains to Weippe where the Corp met a band of Nez Perce Indians.

(Note: Permits are required from July 15 to October 1. Contact Lochsa Ranger District, Route 1, Box 398, Kooskia, ID 83539; Phone 208-926-4274; or www.fs.fed.us/rl/clearwater

This month our featured site is:

Eldon's Jerky and Sausage Supply is located in a rural setting outside the village of Kooskia. If you check out the "News from the Mountain" link on his site you will read of the all the wild game they are able to observe from their front porch. At Eldon's Sausage website you will find recipes, ingredients, and tools to create your own culinary art for anything from wild meat to ice cream.

Email Eldon