We’re up bright and early this Friday morning, Danny drives his loaded truck north to deliver his sculptures to their new home, and we take our Subaru south. At Missoula we turn onto 93 and go through Hamilton and Darby…we’re in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley, following and crossing the river several times. We’re also following part of the Lewis & Clark Trail, which takes us through the Lost Trail Pass at the Idaho border, and across the Continental Divide for the second and last time (our first crossing was on the way to Missoula on Tuesday).
On the way to Lost Trail Pass...
The Pass.
We left the Bitteroot behind shortly before going through the pass, but we don’t get very far before we pick up the Salmon River and follow it for a while before we stop for a picnic lunch..
Picnic spot on the Salmon.
Lower Salmon River canyon.
Our next stop is in the town of Salmon for a visit to the Sacagawea Interpretive Center.
Sacagawea
This is one of many memorials and monuments scattered through South Dakota and Idaho to the Shoshone woman who made Lewis and Clark’s exploration possible. She was born very close to here, and the baby boy she’s carrying was born on the famous expedition.
We continue past Challis, then west onto 75 and into the spectacular Sawtooth Wilderness, which gets its name from the mountains that look like…well, I’ll let you guess. We’ve been following the Salmon river upstream through its increasingly steep and dramatic canyon…
Higher up in the Salmon River canyon
…until it’s finally reduced to a tiny creek the last couple of times we cross it, then disappears altogether. We keep climbing to over 8,700 feet and cross one more mountain pass at Galena Summit, then descend to Ketchum just outside of Sun Valley (around 5,800 feet) where we find a hotel for the night.