Chapter Twelve - Lewis and Clark Senior Style

Chapter Twelve – Lewis and Clark Senior Style

Columbia Gorge

 
At the end of their outbound journey the Corps was anxious to reach the Pacific Ocean and so were we.  We enjoyed every moment of the trip, but we had been traveling for a month with countless visits to Lewis and Clark Interpretive Centers.  I was pretty much done with the Lewis and Clark trek.  Russ—not so much.  We stayed in Lewiston, Idaho only one night and were ready to move fast through the last miles of our journey to the Pacific.

Two hundred years earlier, Lewis and Clark had left their horses with the Nez Perce at Weippe for safe keeping, and Clark had supervised a work crew to make new canoes to finish their journey to the ocean by river.  On October 6, 1805 the men of the Corps dipped their oars into the Clearwater River and began their downstream journey.  The Nez Perce assured Lewis and Clark that following the river would take them ultimately to the Pacific.  The men rowed with determination and speed.  Eventually, the Clearwater River would converge into the Snake River and finally the Columbia River, then the ocean.  There was a definite, “Let’s go boys” attitude in the speed of the men to get to their destination.

Russ and I had two days of driving to the ocean.  The first day we traveled alongside the Snake River toward Kennewick, Washington, where the Snake River converged with the Columbia River.  The topography was in constant change.  An hour into the drive we were traveling through endless rolling fields of wheat, later we passed groves of Sycamore trees being grown for paper and eventually apple orchards, then we saw grape vineyards on otherwise barren hills opposite the river.  The change in the look of the land was slow but dramatic; for we had begun the day in a pine forest and ended it amidst barren hills.  Clark wrote when he arrived at the end of the Snake River, “Worthy of remark that not one stick of timber on the river.”  Once Russ and I reached Kennewick, we visited the Sacajawea State Park and Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  (Yes, another Interpretive Center). 

 Beginning of Drive Near Lewiston, Idaho

 End of Drive Near Kennewick, Washington

The Interpretive Center at Kennewick sat in a park beside the Columbia River.  At the park, two canoes, similar to the ones made by Clark and his crew, were on display.  The most interesting thing that happened to us at the park was that we were approached by a uniformed Washington State Parks employee, while walking around park.  The Parks employee was very nice and asked us if we were from Texas.  When we said,” yes”, he explained that he was looking for us because he didn’t want to give us a parking ticket.  We hadn’t purchased a parking ticket, because we assumed we could buy it inside the center.  He said that if we intended to visit more sites in Washington, we would be smart to buy the annual pass for $30.  Otherwise, we could be given a $100 ticket.  We were grateful for his advice and quickly bought the annual pass-a bargain at twice the price.

Columbia River at Convergence with Snake River

Reproductions of Expedition Canoes

We left Kennewick a hot July 22^nd morning and drove west on the Interstate along the Oregon side of the Columbia.  Soon we were in the Columbia Gorge where the Columbia cuts a half mile swath between barren cliffs that reminded us of photographs of the moon’s surface.  The Gorge goes on for a hundred miles and ends at the Dalles Dam, where trees once again scatter across the landscape.  The views were spectacular at the Dalles Dam, and after lunch we    

Columbia Gorge Cliffs

Dalles Dam with Mt. Hood in the Background

 

Historic Oregon Route 30 near the Dalles

decided to take the Historic Oregon Route 30 Highway to enjoy more of the beautiful scenery.  In the 1 ½ days driving since leaving Lewiston the scenery had been the highlight of the trip.  We thought about the wonders that the Corps had been seeing, as the first European Americans to be rowing down the Columbia two centuries ago.  They were impatient to reach their destination, but they had to be overwhelmed by the beauty of everything they saw.  Once at the Dalles we saw nothing but tree covered hills until we reached Seaside, Oregon, the last stop of our odyssey across half the continent.