The guests aboard the Sea Bird disembarked this morning in Clarkston, Washington. We boarded jet boats and traveled about 60 miles up the Snake River into Hell's Canyon. The landscape here is stark and foreboding, but has been the site of human occupation for hundreds of years. Among the animal species we observed today was the rocky mountain bighorn sheep. This denizen of cliffs and rocky precipices was very important to the native peoples of this region, as evidenced by its frequent representation in native rock art such as this petroglyph at Buffalo Eddy.
The Lewis and Clark party first encountered the bighorn in the spring of 1805, near the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, far to the east of our location. Captain Lewis called it an ibex, which he knew from studying books in President Jefferson's library. Although new to him, the animal had been first observed and described by non-native people the previous year in Alberta, Canada.
We all were struck by the contrast between the conditions of life experienced by the native people who made this rock figure, the Lewis and Clark party on their great trek almost 200 years ago, and our comfortable and leisurely circumstances. We admire the former, but much prefer the latter in actual practice!
