On To Montana

A glance at the map suggested that route 3 would give us a straight shot from the Wallowa Valley to Lewiston and then route 12, through Clearwater country--nearly home--to Montana. We should have given the map a bit more than a glance. At the top, the straight line turned very squiggly, as the road plunged a couple thousand feet down to the La Grande Ronde river (part of the Hell's Canyon system, I surmise), and a couple thousand back up. It amounted to no more than a long hour's tedious driving, a couple radiator breaks on the way back up, and Vicki's distracting herself as usual by taking scores of pix of the scenery, a few of which appear below.

Still in the Whitman/Wallowa national forest,
possibly the worst tree/cell tower yet; a redwood
among all the mature pines

At the bottom of the descent

La Grande Ronde canyon

Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea monument in Lewiston; 
Sacagawea is saying "why don't you just ask someone?"

We savage-camped at the beautiful Lenore rest area on route 12
in Idaho, with the beautiful Clearwater river in view

Next morning, June 28th, we passed the confluence of the Selway
and the Lochsa, and followed the Lochsa nearly to the border;
perhaps our favorite of all the scenic drives in the world; nearly
home

We rafted the Lochsa in the late 90s...25 Classs IV rapids in 24
miles; we were the only raft in six together that didn't dump-truck

At the Idaho/Montana border, Packer Meadow, where Lewis and
Clark camped both going to and coming from the Pacific; site of
one of our more memorable snowmobile mishaps, too

The first time we saw Packer Meadow, we thought it was a lake;
in early summer the camas flowers carpet the meadow wall to
wall; we were just a bit late this year, although a few are still
visible here

Finally, Missoula

"Home"