Lolo Summit

Lewis and Clark never used the name Lolo. Its first known appearance is in David Thompson's journal of 1810, which mentions three fur trappers, probably of French descent, called Michael, Lolo and Gregoire. In Salish the trail was naptnišaqs, the Nez Perce Trail, the road the Nimiipuu rode east to the buffalo country. The crossing cost the Corps eleven days, not the four Toby had promised; on September 16 Clark wrote that he was as wet and cold in every part as he had ever been in his life.

What the plaque says

Lolo Summit The Lewis and Clark party crossed this pass Sept. 13, 1805, westbound for the Pacific after a long detour to the south. From the headwaters of the Missouri they had crossed the mountains to the Salmon. Finding that river impassable, they traded for packhorses, hired an Indian guide, and came north to an Indian trail across the mountains here. Tired and ill-fed, the men were to have a hard struggle in early snow along the steep ridges which the trail followed for most of its 125 mile course west to the Clearwater River. 247

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove — 8.1 mi
  Thousand-year-old cedars on the Lochsa headwaters, where the editor of Lewis and Clark's journals asked to be scattered.

More markers nearby

• Lolo Trail Crossing — 2.9 mi
• Whitehouse Pond — 13 mi