Lewiston, Idaho - Hells Gate State Park 9/26 - 9/29 2020 Travel Tour

            From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 
                Tim and Linda Bunyan

We continue north on Highway 95 about 115 miles through the Camus Meadow to reach the city of Lewiston, Idaho.  Our RV site (Full hookup $35.00 ReserveAmerica.com) at Hells Gate State Park on Birch Loop is spacious, grassy, and quiet pleasantly located along the shores of the Snake River!  The state park once was the site of a Nez Perce Village.  

Hells Gate State Park connects the Idaho side of Southway Bridge with the Lewis Clark Discovery Center at the Park.  We take a 15 mile, leisurely bike ride on the Clearwater and Snake River trail.  Lewiston is situated at the lowest elevation in Idaho.  At 733 feet the long season of warm weather gives rise to Lewiston's reputation as Idaho's Banana Belt.

Bikeride along Lewiston Levee.

We camped on the South Bank of the Snake River.  Lewis and Clark on the North.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center: is Covid closed; however, the monument outside demonstrates their travel through Idaho and campsite here.  

The Marina and grocery/gift shop sits on the bank of the Snake River in downtown Lewiston 

Our bike ride takes us along the levee into the town of Lewiston.

We pass by the marina.

The marina offers over 100 slips available by the day, week, month, or year 

and a public boat launch.

The bike trail from our RV site at this state park travels along the Snake River into the town of Lewiston, population 32,000, the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Couer d'Alene (where Jim and Linda Drinkard and Bill and Jane Donovan live). 

The sights around town.  Idaho's first Capitol and City Hall is preserved.

Lewiston was Idaho's First Capitol; now in Boise. 1863 President Lincoln signed the Idaho Organic Act creating Idaho Territory.

The original territory encompassed an area of 324,000 square miles - and included all of present-day Montana, all of Wyoming, and the western strip of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

Father of Idaho Willam Craig homestead as he served as Indian agent and ran a ferry across the Snake River.  He served as a peacemaker.  Words of Statesman at William Craig's death: "The deceased was a man of nerve, kind heart, and generous impulses".  William Craig will be regretted by all who respect the toil and suffering endured by the early pioneers".

Lewiston is reachable by some ocean-going vessels.  Idaho's only seaport is the farthest inland port east of the West Coast.  The main industries are agriculture, paper, and timber products.  We pass by an ammunition manufacturing headquarters of CCI and Speer Bullet.

The paper mill, port, and major distribution center, we held a moment reflecting that covid has its suppression on American life in this city of 32,000.  Covid closed, the city appears vacated till better times.

We ride our bikes back to our beautiful campsite here along the river at Hells Gate Canyon where the city and the environment meet.

It is time to continue to Washington where we want to visit with Mike and Paul.