Crossing Lewis and Clark - Again

As we leave the next morning for Glacier International Peace Park, Granpa asks if I used the National Park website and made reservations for a campground.  Ooops.  Turns out that I wasn't the only one to goof.  Lil' Miss GPS took us to the east side of the Park, not the West side where we prefer to camp.




But Granpa took advantage of the route and took me by Great Falls, Montana to see the Lewis and Clark Museum.  Because of the series of waterfalls along this ten mile stretch of the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark had to portage for miles.  (That means take their boats out of the river and man-handle them across impossibly rough terrain.)  It took them 31 days to travel the ten miles.






It was grueling work because some of the pirouges carried several thousands pounds of supplies!  

Every ounce had to be transported by man-muscle.

First they portaged around Black Eagle Falls, and then Colter (six feet high), Rainbow (fifty feet high), and Crooked Falls (19 feet).

Clark reported seeing 10,000 buffalo concentrated along a two-mile stretch of the the river banks here.

It's amazing to think that, what took Lewis and Clark 31 days to get past, now only took us ten minutes in the comfort of an air-conditioned car.