The Lolo Trail: The Road That Nearly Killed the Corps of Discovery

The Lolo Trail crosses the Bitterroot Mountains between the Bitterroot Valley of Montana and the Clearwater River basin in Idaho. The Nez Perce had used it for generations as a route between their Camas Prairie homeland and the buffalo hunting grounds of Montana. Lewis and Clark crossed it in September of eighteen oh five, heading west, and it nearly destroyed the expedition.

The mountains in September were cold and already accumulating snow at elevation. The trail crossed eleven high ridges before descending to the Clearwater. The horses struggled on the narrow path. There was no game to hunt; the ridge terrain had no animals, and the expedition's food ran out. The men ate horses, then candles, then discussed eating Lewis's dog Seaman. Clark wrote in his journal that the mountains were the most terrible I ever beheld.

The crossing took eleven days. Several men became too sick to travel. The corps would not have survived without Nez Perce assistance when they reached the Clearwater, where the tribe provided food and directions.

The Lolo Trail is now a Forest Service road, Forest Road Three Oh Three, running along the high ridge of the Bitterroot crest through the Lolo National Forest on the Montana side and the Clearwater National Forest on the Idaho side. The road is unpaved, narrow, and impassable in winter. The high ridge crossing and much of the adjacent terrain is now protected within the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, the third-largest wilderness area in the lower forty-eight states.

The Nez Perce would use the same trail in reverse in eighteen seventy-seven, fleeing east into Montana from the Army. Their name for the Lolo has never been forgotten by the tribe, even if the signs on the road carry only the English one.