Meriwether Lewis on the White Cliffs of the Missouri
Nebraska definitive edition of the Lewis and Clark journals, edited by Gary E. Moulton.
 
May 31, 1805:               
 "The hills and river Clifts which we passed today exhibit a most romantic appearance.  The bluffs of the river rise the hight of from 2 to 300 feet and in most places near, perpendicular; they are formed of remarkable white sandstone which is sufficently soft to give way readily to the impressionof water; ..."  "The water in the course of time in decending from those hills and plains on either side of the river has trickled down the soft sand cliffs and woarn it into a thousand grotesque figures, which with the help of a little imagination and an oblique view, at a distance are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone buildings... some collumns standing... others lying prostrate an broken... nitches and alcoves of various forms and sizes, ...   as we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantment would never had and [an] end...     vast ranges of walls of tolerable workmanship, so perfect indeed that I should have thought that nature had attempted here to rival the human art of masonry had I not recollected that she had first began her work."


Prince Maximilian on the White Cliffs of the Missouri
Notes by Clay Jenkinson on the 81 Aquatints from the Travels of Prince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer.  A collection of prints are on display at the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Interpretive Center in Washburn, ND.  Journal research came from the following books: Karl Bodmer's America, Karl Bodmer's North American Prints, and Karl Bodmer's Easter Views

 "Long tracts of the sandstone strata perfectly resembled the ruins of a large fortress, the stratification giving the walls a certain regularity, while at the same time, they bare marks of having been destroyed by violence"

Clay Jenkinson on the Bitterroot Mountains

"... the crème de la crème of the Lewis and Clark Trail "  August 2005

James Ronda on the Bitterroot Mountains
Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, by James Ronda ISBN 0-8032-8929-4
        
"From the beginning, the Lolo Trail proved a cruel and unforgiving passage.  A clearly marked, well-traveled trail at the outset, it soon became a faint trace often lost in a tangle of fallen timber and dense thickets. Serious  trouble struck on September 14 when Old Toby's memory failed and he led the party off the main track down a fishing path, and to the Lochsa River.  On short rations already, the expedition killed one of their horses and remembered how lost and hungry they were by naming a nearby stream Killed Colt Creek.  In order to rejoin the trail, the explorers had to make a painful climb up the side of Wendover Ridge."

Steve Ambrose on the White Cliffs of the Missouri
 Undaunted Courage, by Stephen E. Ambrose ISBN 0-684-82697-6; page 228
                
" It is today as Lewis saw it.  The White Cliffs can be seen only from small boat or canoe.  Put in at Fort Benton and take out three of four days later at Judith Landing.  Of all the historic and/or scenic sights we have visited in the world, this is number one.  We have made the trip ten times."

Tim Cahill on the Bitterroot Mountains:
National Geographic ADVENTURE ,  April 2002 Edition

"Idaho's Bitterroot Range very nearly defeated the Corps of Discovery in the autumn of 1805.  Two hundred years and a little trail grooming - later you can retrace the explorers' misreckoned route into what remains a daunting wilderness."

                                                       Click here for the daily itinerary for:
                             The Lewis and Clark, Prince Maximilian Tour 2010

For more information or a brochure contact:
 

  
with humanities scholar  Clay S. Jenkinson
Telephone 208-791-8721 ~ Fax 208-746-0625   email bek@odytours.net
www.odytours.net