Ken Fitzgerald
09-18-2012, 8:57 AM
We live in Lewiston, Idaho at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers. The Clearwater River begins near Lolo Pass on the Montana/Idaho border where Lewis and Clark began their crossing of the Bitterroot range of the Rocky Mountains. It starts as as small stream; becomes the Lochsa River; is joined by the Selway River to become the middle fork of the Clearwater River. It then is joined by the south and north forks of the Clearwater River.
The river flows through a tight little canyon with mountain ridges on either either side. At times the canyon is less than a mile wide.
For weeks the canyon at home was filled with smoke from forest fires in the surrounding area. We began a drive in Lewiston and approximately 750 miles later we broke out of the smoke. We drove acoss the panhandle of Idaho, acoss Montana and were about 40 miles outside Gillette, Wyoming when we cleared the smoke.
How smokey was it?
241371241372241373241374
There was one 70 mile stretch along US-12 between Lowell, ID and the summit of Lolo Pass that the forest service had all pull off areas blocked with orange cones...signs telling everyone to use your headlights...all exits from US-12 were blocked. In short, they didn't want you stopping in those areas. There are a lot of pull off areas along this section of the Lochsa (pronounced Locksaw) as it is famous for it's native western cutthroat trout and native steelhead which are running right now........
The river flows through a tight little canyon with mountain ridges on either either side. At times the canyon is less than a mile wide.
For weeks the canyon at home was filled with smoke from forest fires in the surrounding area. We began a drive in Lewiston and approximately 750 miles later we broke out of the smoke. We drove acoss the panhandle of Idaho, acoss Montana and were about 40 miles outside Gillette, Wyoming when we cleared the smoke.
How smokey was it?
241371241372241373241374
There was one 70 mile stretch along US-12 between Lowell, ID and the summit of Lolo Pass that the forest service had all pull off areas blocked with orange cones...signs telling everyone to use your headlights...all exits from US-12 were blocked. In short, they didn't want you stopping in those areas. There are a lot of pull off areas along this section of the Lochsa (pronounced Locksaw) as it is famous for it's native western cutthroat trout and native steelhead which are running right now........