Lewis and Clark Trail State Park – On the Overland Shortcut

1806 The Return Home – Across the hills, taking a shortcut from the Columbia to the Snake River

"Some pine of the long leaf kind appear on the Creek hills. also about 50 acres of well timbered pine land where we passed the Creek at 4 m…"

~William Clark, May 2, 1806, while traveling near the area that is now the location of Lewis and Clark Trail State Park.

Following the advice of the local Walla Walla Indians, the Corps of Discovery traveled over the rolling hills of southeastern Washington state. They saw animals along the creeks, and Lewis noticed "Cottonwood, birch, the crimson haw, redwillow, sweetwillow, chokecherry yellow currants, goosberry, whiteberryed honeysuckle rose bushes, seven bark, and shoemate."

On May 1, Lewis wrote they "saw a great number of the Curloos, some Crains, ducks, prarie larks and several speceis of sparrows common to the praries. I see very little difference between the apparent face of the country here and that of the plains of the Missouri only that these are not enlivened by the vast herds of buffaloe Elk &c which ornament the other." The next day, the Expedition reached today's Lewis and Clark Trail State Park. Here Clark noted that "Some pine of the long leaf kind appear on the Creek hills. also about 50 acres of well timbered pine land where we passed the Creek..."

Visitors to the park still enjoy this forest of "pine of the long leaf kind" – today known as Ponderosa Pine. Wildlife and plants abound in this oasis in the middle of grasslands and ranching country. Hike a nature trail to see some of the plants noted by Lewis and Clark. In the evening, listen for the hooting of great horned owls as they prepare to leave the trees for their nightly hunting trips into the surrounding open country.