“Ocian in view! O! the joy.”

This November 7, 1805 journal entry from William Clark perfectly encapsulates his peculiar spelling and punctuation style, along with the very understandable relief of getting to the long-awaited destination: the Pacific Ocean. At the mouth of the Columbia River, just west of the town of Astoria, Oregon, the Lewis & Clark Expedition completed the journey … Read more

Digging into Mining History in Butte

Butte is a mining town. The city developed entirely because of the industry, and even today the skyline is dominated by mine headframes everywhere. A cursory glance at the Google satellite view of the city will show a town that appears dangerously close to being consumed by the mines to its northeast side. Butte’s mining … Read more

Finishing Our Exploration of the Bitterroots

We finished off our time in far western Montana with a short stopover in the very southern end of the Bitterroot Valley, at another national forest campground located along the East Fork of the Bitterroot River. Our main goals were more hiking and more R&R before hitting another stretch of urban visits. Goals achieved!   … Read more

Ambivalent End to Our Dakotas Experience

Our route from Theodore Roosevelt National Park took us north to Williston, ND for two reasons. First, it was time to return to the Mighty Missouri and the Lewis & Clark Trail to continue our westward trek after our month-long sojourn in the South Dakota Badlands, the Black Hills, Devils Tower, and the North Dakota … Read more

Annihilation in the Badlands, Actual and Potential

In addition to being completely blown away by the scenery in the Badlands, we also visited several sites that reminded us of the grim history of this wild and unpredictable place. One preserves the history of a massacre that actually occurred, while the other tells the story of the destruction of the human race that … Read more