Weekend Getaway: Lewiston, Idaho

Take a 40-mile jet boat trip in Hells Canyon or stop at the Nez Perce National Historical Park on your next trip to Lewiston.

Take a 40-mile jet boat trip in Hells Canyon or stop at the Nez Perce National Historical Park on your next trip to Lewiston.

Since that autumn evening in 1805 when Lewis and Clark arrived at the future site of Lewiston in a Nez Perce dugout canoe, river transport around this northwest Idaho city has certainly picked up speed.

For the thrilling 40-mile trip to Hells Canyon, North America's deepest river gorge, modern-day travelers can depart from Lewiston or its twin city, Clarkston, Wash., aboard one of the many jet boats that now ply the waters of the Snake River. Powered by streams of water rather than propellers, the boats—carrying 22 to 46 passengers—have a shallow draft and can speed up or down the river, navigating mellow stretches and rapids alike. Lewis and Clark should have been so lucky.

A jet boat tour to Hells Canyon, however, is more than a thrill ride. With stops along the way for lunch and a swim, if the weather is warm (in summer, the thermometer routinely hits 90 degrees and occasionally tops 105), passengers on half-day trips get a look at ancient petroglyphs, rugged basalt columns, and wildlife like bighorn sheep. Full-day trips continue along the most dramatic stretch of the Snake, where the canyon narrows and eventually becomes more than a mile deep; sheer rock walls and cliffs rise to either side. It's an awesome spectacle.

Though it might be the jet boat trip that lures you to Lewiston, the leafy city of 32,000 is also worth exploring. Situated in the Lewis-Clark Valley, where the Clearwater River joins the Snake, Lewiston is hemmed in by hills and high plateaus that rise abruptly from the valley floor. The city is protected from floods by levees, the tops of which form part of a 19-mile-long system of riverside trails connecting parks and informative sights, such as the Lewis and Clark interpretive panels at a vista point overlooking the confluence of the Snake and the Clearwater. For a bird's-eye view of the city, drive up the old 1917 Spiral Highway, eight miles of hairpin curves that climb more than 1,800 feet to the top of Lewiston Hill.

Lewiston began in 1861 as a steamboat landing but soon became a commercial hub for those seeking their fortunes in the nearby gold mines. Though gold fever was short-lived, shipping remains important, thanks to the locks and dams on the Columbia that have made Lewiston an inland seaport, 465 river miles from the crashing Pacific surf.

In Lewiston's historic downtown, centered along several blocks of tree-lined Main Street, 19th- and early 20th-century buildings now house low-key shops and restaurants, including a few gems. The Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts and History hosts art shows in a street-level gallery, while a permanent exhibit upstairs about the city's early Chinese community displays the elaborately decorated altar from a temple built around 1890. Just down the street, Bojack's Broiler Pit, a local institution, offers its take on "bite-size steak," a surprisingly good local specialty consisting of beef coated in seasonings and breading and then deep-fried.

Be sure to stop at the Nez Perce National Historical Park visitor center on the Nez Perce Reservation. Though the park consists of 38 far-flung sites relating to the tribe and its history, the visitor center provides a quick introduction to the people who have inhabited this region for thousands of years. A short film profiles the Nez Perce, some of whom tried unsuccessfully to resist government efforts to move them onto reservations in 1877. There's also a small but exquisite collection of artifacts, from a necklace of three-inch-long grizzly claws to a spectacular eagle feather bonnet. A 32-foot dugout canoe from 1837 is less showy but equally impressive—in part because among its makers was Chief Twisted Hair, the same man who in the fall of 1805 helped guide Lewis and Clark to their camp at the place the Nez Perce called Tsceminicum, or "meeting of the waters."

QUICK FACT
Lewiston is home to a number of Idaho's champion trees, the largest specimens of their respective species in the state, including red maple, blue ash, English walnut, and Japanese red pine.

DON'T MISS
The Nez Perce National Historical Park visitor center houses an impressive collection of Nez Perce artifacts, including tomahawks and porcupine quillwork. In Spalding, 11 miles east of Lewiston. 843-2261, www.nps.gov/nepe [3].

Photography by Steve Bly/Idaho Stock Images

This article was first published in May 2004. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information.