The Lolo Motorway Conundrum

It all began on a clear, sunny day in Nothern Idaho. We had camped the night before right next to the Lochsa River. We made our preperations and rose early so that we could spend the whole day hiking. We were tired of driving. No driving today, folks. No siree.

Our trailhead began on what I will affectionately refer to as the Trail of Death. No, no, that's too harsh. Attack of the Boulders. Rocky Road Ridge. Trail Doom. Hmmm, the correct designation eludes me. Officially it's called the Lolo Motorway (a.k.a the historic trail that Lewis and Clark used when crossing the Idaho wilderness).

*our vehicle exits highway 12 and enters dirt road*
For those who have not traversed mountain dirt roads, let me let you in on a little secret. They are narrow. They are steep. And if you can drive 20 miles an hour, consider yourself in the lap of luxury. Lolo only allowed us to drive a max of five miles an hour. So. My math is a little shady, but 12 miles took us approximately 45 minutes (and that includes the frequent stops so that Bruce could remove boulders from the road while I drove behind him. Oh yes. Lewis and Clark would be so proud.) Our trailhead was approximately 32 miles down Lolo Motorway. It ended up taking two hours to traverse 25 miles of this nonsense. Of course had we realized this at the get go, we would have picked another trail.


However, the view at the top of the ridge was absolutely beautiful.


Still driving. It soon became apparent we weren't going to make it to the trailhead. The road conditions were awful. Sad.



Nerd alert! Survival mode beckons the glasses to emerge....along with the Ruffles located just behind my head.


On our way back out, we decided to stop and brush up on the history of Lolo Motorway.

I, for one, felt the "Driving the Lolo Motorway" segment should have been printed in neon font with flashing lights. They left out that fact that you may have to exit vehicle to remove branches and boulders. And be prepared to do the same on your way back down even though you already cleared the area on the way up. It's a boulder madhouse, I tell you.

Ahhhh, back to the scenic view along Highway 12. The Lochsa and Selway Rivers are my two favorite areas of Idaho.

As we drove toward our next camping spot on the Selway River, we pulled over for a short hike to Snowshoe Falls.

Yay, we get to hike for half a mile. And yes, I'm still taking the camelback loaded with 70 oz. of Gatorade.

Snowshoe Falls was lovely.

"While you're out there

on the highway..." pull over, take some pictures and listen to the rapids. Mmmmm, I love that sound!

"....and if you can't come home, please send your mind."

Great driving song, by the way. We should know. We spent the whole day driving (minus that 1 mile hike). Yet at the end of the day, I must say we were in my favorite part of the country.