“A fine morning loaded and Set out at 7 o’Clock… arrived at a large Southerly fork… This south fork or Lewis’s River. I think Louises River is about 250 yards wide, the Koos Koos Ke River about 150 yards wide and the river below the forks about 300 yards wide.”
—Captain William Clark
The Lewis and Clark Expedition had arrived at the confluence of the Clearwater River (the Koos Koos Ke) and the Snake River (Lewis’s River) October 10, 1805: at this point they knew that they were not far from the Pacific Ocean.
As our journey nears its end, we still have a full day of adventure: a jetboat ride into the wild and scenic Hells Canyon, formed and shaped by the great Bonneville Flood about 15,000 years ago. This one time flood-event broke out of the Great Salt Lake through today’s Red Rock Pass following the Snake River towards Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington and then on its way to the Pacific Ocean.
Lewiston and Clarkston are mining towns which supplied the “gold-seekers” of 1862 with the supplies they needed to “strike it rich” in an area just to the northeast, which is todays Pierce, Idaho. The two towns are named after the intrepid captains of the expedition.
