Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Original public domain image from Flickr
The Lemhi Pass in Idaho is where Lewis and Clark crossed over the Continental Divide in 1805. This marked a major milestone in the U. S. westward expansion, but Lewis and Clark were not the first people to use the pass. They followed a well-traveled Shoshone Trail. Sacajawea lived as a child below the pass along Agency Creek until age 12 when she was captured during a battle with another another tribe and forced to North Dakota. It was here that she became part of the Corps of Discovery with Lewis and Clark and proved to be invaluable to the success of the expedition. Today the pass is traversed by a 35-mile long graded unpaved Backcountry Byway through public lands where colorful wildflowers like arrowleaf balsam-root, lupine and delphinium rival the sunset. Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management. Original public domain image from Flickr