Travels With Sam

2005-03-30T00:02:00.000-06:00

Day 5: The last picture I will post from our Spring Break 2005 trip.

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Sam was in fine form for our hike to the falls.

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Day 4: Petit Jean State Park

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The dubious highlight of the restored bath house is this heroic bronze of Hernando De Soto being served by a docile Indian woman.

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Hot Springs National Park preserves one of the historic bath houses that was bult to take advantage of the mineral waters. The place made me think of The Road to Wellville.

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The duckboat tour, on a converted WW2-era landing craft, was a big disappointment.

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Lots of fun in the coffee shop.

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Day 3: Hot Springs, Arkansas. A fun town and the boyhood home of Bill Clinton.

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Countryside between Fort Smith and Hot Springs.

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Prison room at Fort Smith National Historic Site. This was our first stop after we broke camp at Devils Den. I would have more pictures, but Sam was not good...

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A tight squeeze.

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March is a good month in the southern Ozarks. Wet, but that means plenty of waterfalls. And good views through the leafless trees.

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Devil's Den is a maze of carved limestone and oak trees, a giant playground. "I want to take a short cut!" Sam would periodically announce, and we were off cross country again.

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We had amazing thunderstorms our first night, the rain hitting the tent as hard as I have ever experienced. We were soggy in the morning, but Sam insisted we "have an adventure" before breakfast.

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Canned ravioli and hot cocoa make a complete meal.

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Exploring Devil's Den Cave. "Dad, is there a real devil in here?" Sam asked.

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Devils Den State Park. It was clear we were going to have a wet time of it, but Sam wanted to go hiking right away. A rainy twighlight walk was just the thing.

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A Rainy Start. The original plan was to follow the Sante Fe Trail to New Mexico. A cold snap on the plains made us decide on a camping trip to the Arkansas Ozarks instead.

2005-03-27T11:46:00.000-06:00

March 2005: Off on another adventure! I get a Spring Break and my wie does not, so I gave her the best gift a busy mom can get--I left, and took the kid with me.

2004-06-30T23:14:00.000-05:00

The last photo that I will post. This small box comes from the descendants of expedition member Patrick Gass, with the story that it was carved for Gass by Sacagawea. If it is true, it is the only material object we have from her hand.

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Day 16: Near Cape Disappointment, Washington.

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Day 15: The wackiest of the many heroic bronze statues of L&C that we saw along the trail. It is hard to figure out what is going on here. Lewis has thrown himself down, his gun still in hand, to hurriedly draw a picture of the fish that the old Indian man is holding, presumably before the fish turns into a bird and flies away. He has a rapt look of concentration on his face--"Must...draw...fish...for...Jefferson!" The Indian man seems wise and kind, he knows how important it is that Lewis draw the fish. Even the dog Seaman is transfixed by the high drama of the moment. Clark stands above them all with arms out like an Old Testament prophet, giving his benediction. Damn it is a strange statue.

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Day 15: Fort Clatsop

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Winter provisions

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Day 15: At the reconstructed Fort Clatsop, where L&C spent their second winter.

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And again

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Day 14: The end of the trail (according to some) in Seaside, Oregon. The lady taking the picture asked me "What were they looking for anyway?" "Lobster hats, ma'am," I almost said.

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Day 14: The view from Tillamahook Head, which is as far south along the coast as L&C explored.

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"Oh! The joy!"

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Day 13: "Ocian in View!"

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Day 13: The politics are different out here than in Missouri.

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Getting near Portland, Oregon.

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Day 12: Another view of the slackwater that is the lower Columbia.

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Day 12: Pioneer cabin near The Dalles, Oregon.

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Day 12: Windsurfers on the lower Columbia.

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Day 12: Sam stands in front of an enlarged photo of native children at an an Indian boarding school around the turn of the last century. This was at the Tam�stslikt Cultural Institute, the interpretive center for the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Tribes

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Give me some pie or I will shoot you!

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Day 12: Lewis and Clark Days at Fort Walla Walla, a veritable treasure trove of wrong historical information.

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What is in there?

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Day 12: Whitman Mission in south central Washington.

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What

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Day 11: Typical eastern Washington landscape.

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Day 11: Like the Missouri, the Columbia River today has been transformed by dams, dikes, irrigation canals and other "improvements" and bears little resemblance to the river that L&C knew.

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Day 11: No comment.

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Day 11: Canoe Camp, Idaho. It was here that the Expedition stopped to make dugout canoes to carry them down the rivers to the Pacific.

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Heart of the Monster. The Nez Perce believed that in the time of the animal people Coyote slew and dismembered a great monster on this spot.

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Day 11: Descending the Clearwater River in Idaho.

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Day 11: Astonishing Nez Perce beaded shirt from the 1840s, on display at Nez Perce National Historic Park.

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Day 10: Paying homage to Bernard DeVoto, one of the greatest western historians.

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Brother sharing a Walkman.

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Day 10: Patch of snow near the top of Lolo Pass.

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Day 9: Winding through the Bitteroots.

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Day 9: The Lemhi Valley, home to Sacagawea's people.

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Day 9: Exploring a mine shaft below Lemhi Pass.

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Day 9: Coming down Lemhi Pass.

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Sam ate one too.

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Day 9: Today I ate some glacier lilies.

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Another view from Lemhi Pass.

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Day 9: The view west from Lemhi Pass. L&C had hoped to see a gentle slope leading down to the headwaters of the Columbia, instead they found range after range of mountains still to be crossed.

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End of Day 8: Clark and his men paddled or pushed their canoes over this very stretch of the Beaverhead River near Dillon Montana.

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Day 9: The approach to Lemhi Pass, where L&C crossed the continental divide.

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Day 8: The Beaver's Head. When Sacagawea recognized this landmark the exploreers knew that they were near the homeland of the Lemhi Shoshoni.

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Day 8:

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Day 8: Hunting prairie dogs. Prairie Dogs 1, Sam and Daddy 0.

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Day 8: Pish-kin Buffalo Jump State Park. Indians drove herds of buffalo off this cliff. Let's eat!

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Day 7: Renee and MAc hiking near Great Falls.

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Today the spring feeds into a fish hatchery.

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Day 7, Great Falls: Meriwether Lewis commented on the immense quantity of fresh water flowing from this spring.

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Day 7: The arrival of guns on the Great Plains shifted balances of power, as seen in this Mandan winter count painting on a buffalo robe.

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Interesting mural of an artist's conception of St. Louis in 1804.

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Day 7: Mountain man Sam, at the Lewis and Clark Trail National Interpretive Center in Great Falls.

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Day 7: Montana babe--my wife, Renee.

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Day 7: Great Falls of the Missouri. On reaching this point, Lewis recorded in his journal "Holy crap, there's a dam here!"

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End of Day 6: View down the Missouri River from Fort Benton, Montana.

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Day 6: Grain elevators dominate the towns of this part of the world.

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At the Mint Tavern in Chinook, Montana. Sam enjoyed his first Montana bar experience less than you might have expected.

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Try again--big sky in western North Dakota.

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Big Sky in western North Dakota

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This was so cool--an old cemetary for Indian Scouts and Indian Police.

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Day 4: Inside Fort Mandan

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Native foods traded by the expedition

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Inside Fort Mandan

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Fort Mandan (reconstructed, of course), where the Corps of Discovery spent their first winter. The park interpreter here said about five wrong things about the expedition in his introductory remarks, followed by "And if you have any questions, feel free to ask, because there is not anything I don't know."

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Making a racket

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Day 4: Inside the Mandan lodge

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Day 4: Mandan doll

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Day 4: Inside the reconstructed Mandan earth lodge at Knife River Village. A very impressive place.

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I am collecting a series of strange L&C themed advertisements. This is great!

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A nice display of some of the trade goods that Lewis and Clark might have carried, at the L&C Center in North Dakota near Fort Mandan. I wonder if the axes and knives they carried would have had handles? It was more typical to trade just the head or blade, and the Indians would make their own handles.

Day 5: Williston, ND to ???

2004-05-30T08:04:00.000-05:00

Keeping this blog updated while camping is going to prove tougher than I thought. I have a bunch of pictures from yesterday, Day 5, that we took at the Fort Mandan and Knife River Village. They will get posted in due time. We spend last night in a hotel in Williston, and this morning are going to hit Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site (National Park Service) before venturing on to our beloved Montana.

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The friendly people of Pukwana, South Dakota welcome you

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Day 3: Rural America is full of abandoned homes, especially on the Great Plains

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When Renee came back from shopping, I knew she really loved me

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