hwy12

Lewis and Clark Highway
On the way from Missoula, Montana to Lewiston, Idaho, I took scenic Highway 12 aka The Lewis and Clark Highway aka the Nez Perce trail. If you like curvy roads with cliffs on one side and water on the other, this is a beaut. It drops 4,500 feet from Lolo pass and is more than a 100 miles long. This was the hardest part of the Lewis and Clark journey and they might have perished except for help from the Nez Perce indians. Seventy years later, the U.S. Army chased the Nez Perce out of their homeland along this route. The Nez Perce outmaneuvered and battled the army for 3 months, but were finally captured just 40 miles from Canada, where they would have been free. Chief Joseph died on a reservation away from his home.


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