June 18, 2009

June 18, 2009

From Pocatello, ID we continue our journey north intermittently hitting rain showers. In one short week our journey has single-handedly broken the back of the multi-year drought the West has been enduring. Hmmm…I wonder if we can make money as professional rainmakers?

In a long day of driving we pass by the vast lava fields of southern Idaho and cross into Lewis and Clark’s Montana and the headwaters of the Missouri River. In the afternoon we arrive at Big Hole Battlefield just east of the Idaho border. Big Hole was the site of the largest of the Nez Perce War battles. The Visitor Center chronicles the struggle of the Nez Perce Indians as they resisted being forced onto a smaller reservation. The story is sad but inevitable. Like the majority of Indian tribes they led a nomadic Stone-Age lifestyle requiring vast tracts of land for survival. Once the New World was discovered, it was only a matter of time before they were all overwhelmed by the expansion of modern civilizations.

After learning the history, Aimee and I hike out to the site of the skirmish. When Aimee first glimpses the lush green hillside leading up to the hilltop, she just wants to run up the slope. When we get closer, she finds it less inviting. It is super steep and full of weeds.

Leaving the battlefield we follow the rain-swollen Big Hole River east. We are tired of driving and the next published campground is an hour away. Almost miraculously we stumble upon a small one along a particularly stunning stretch of the river. We park in the middle of a grassy field right next to the river. One of the most beautiful sites we have had. And the fee is only five dollars! Now if the river level was just a little lower and I had a Montana fishing license, it would be the Garden of Eden.