Bitterroot Mountains
Bitterroot Mountains, Weippe, Idaho
The Bitterroot Mountains were discovered as Lewis and Clark continued their journey on foot. They were steep and heavily wooded mountains which made it hard to walk and climb. Sergeant Patrick Gass calls “the most terrible mountains I ever beheld.” The mountains extended further than Lewis and Clark imagined. They were worried they would not make it past them. Clark comes across a stream which he named, Hungry Creek to describe their condition. After 11 days in the Bitterroots, the horses were near starvation, the men who resorted to eating three of the colts—not much better. Finally the expedition reached the divide and passed over the other side, down into the Bitterroot Valley. When they foud their way out they found the Nez Perce and procured from them dried fish and roots. From their they continued what journey they had left.