On Saturday, July 23 we travel the 19 miles to the town of Salmon, and then just beyond it to the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural and Educational Center.  There is a nice visitor center here and a large area with trails, placards explaining many things, and various structures to demonstrate how it looked back in the day.

A picture from inside the visitor center.

I learn the story of how Sacajawea was chosen to guide Lewis and Clark through the mountains and rivers so they could map their way to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Columbia River.   What a difficult journey!  Lewis and Clark had hoped to do the whole trip by river, but that wasn’t possible.  They were able to buy horses from the Shoshone Indians.

I wouldn’t have lasted 5 miles.

Joy and Shiloh are allowed everywhere here, even into the movie area.  Actually what that means is that I can relax and learn and enjoy.

 

Joy meets a wolf…sort of.  Though she is a natural leader, and this looks very much like a dog, she gets it, and takes the submissive role.  Interesting.

We walk some of the trails along the river, and enjoy our day here.

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On Friday, July 29 we backtrack into Montana to the Big Hole Battlefield.

We need to cross the Continental Divide to do this.  The hot temperature cools off 10-12 degrees as we climb in elevation.  It’s a relief, but it’s still fairly hot.

The battlefield is a National Park, but there is no charge to enter.

This place gives me a heavy heart.  The battlefield is actually a cemetery with 60 to 90 unmarked graves of Nez Perce Indians, many of which are women and children.  They were  attacked in the early morning hours of August 9, 1877.  The People, of which there were about 800, only about 200 being warriors, were still asleep when the US Army began firing shots and setting fire to teepees.  Besides the dead, there were many wounded and many horses lost.

The Nez Perce were traveling peacefully with their families. They were hunting buffalo and would eventually try to make their way to Canada, and freedom.

Those that survivedcontinued from here towards the Yellowstone area.

Wildflowers adorn the area…maybe some of the graves.

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The dogs aren’t allowed anywhere here except in the parking lots.  It’s hot and there is no shade and I don’t feel comfortable leaving them in the truck for more than 5 minutes or so, even with the windows wide open.  I get these pictures by leaving JR running with the air conditioning on while I go to a viewing area at the Visitor Center.

I’m the only one there, and the silence is….loud.  In the quiet, as I gaze out over the area, I can almost hear the screams of the women and children as they seek shelter in the trees along the river.

The limited time here due to no dog access and heat, has been enough.  I’m still covered in sadness as I write this, hours later.

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Then on a happier note….

Saturday, July 30, Wagonhammer RV Park holds it’s 4th Annual Lavender Festival!

I dont’ really know what to expect, never having been to a Lavender Festival before.  I dress up the kids in their bandanas….Joys happens to have a lot of lavender in it, and she was wearing her purple harness….so she fit right in. I didn’t take a picture of that but you can see her purple harness is photos above.

We walk across to the big open park-like area where people had been setting up since the day before.

It was set up really cute with 8-10 vendors, and little tables set with pretty table cloths and bouquets of lavender.

That’s my lavender lemonade there on the table. Tasty!

They sold everything from the dried lavender bouquets, crocheted purple pot holders, lavender bath and body products, hand made baby cloths, quilts and jewelry, and even some fresh veggies.

I buy a little dried bouquet to go with the lavender ‘joy’ I already had.

There is a really cute gift shop here at the RV park too, where among other things, you can buy items made by local artists.

Sorry, blurry….but pretty in it’s own way.  🙂  They decorated a lavender ‘Christmas’ tree in the gift shop in honor of the festival.

Pretty stuff.

I actually try on those skirts hanging in the middle of this picture, but they just weren’t working for me.  🙂

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Our biggest problem here has been the heat.  It’s been in the upper 80’s and 90’s every day…99 degrees being the highest so far.  Because of this we spend all of our afternoons either in WS or traveling in JR, with the air conditioning on.

The mornings are surprisingly cool, and that’s when we walk and I do chores.  The sun goes behind the mountains at around 8pm, and after that we come outside again.  They say this is unusually hot for this area , but it’s lasting the whole time we are here.  It saps my energy and makes me crabby if I have to be in it, and the dogs are miserable, and rush to get into the a/c.  This has limited our exploration of the area.  Also there was a fire a few miles away, which lasted most of the week, so the air has been smoky.  It was quickly controlled so no damage was done to homes.

I need to pay better attention when I plan….I must have been thinking it was a higher elevation here but actually it’s less than 4000 feet in North Fork, where we are.  If we come back this way probably fall would be a good time.