Traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail (Falcon Guide)

Our family traveled the Lewis & Clark trail this summer, and Julie Fanselow's book was vital to our trip. Vital. ***I added some of our photos as customer images.****In addition to great information about Lewis & Clark and their discoveries, Julie Fanselow maps out the trail, describing the events as they happened all along the way. She also points out other activities of interest. This travel book is EXTREMELY family-friendly -- no snobby Frommer's guide comes close.With this book, you can actually go coast-to-coast, although we did not. Julie (sorry -- I feel like I'm on a first-name basis with the author, after days of looking at the maps and saying, "What does Julie say about that stop?") Anyway, Julie takes you from Monticello, VA to Fort Clatsop, OR. We picked up the trail in Missouri, and we enjoyed every mile of it. We weren't strict Lewis-and-Clarkers -- we got off the trail to do quite a bit of family fun along the way.Some things we found using this book that we probably would have skipped without it:+ Nebraska City's Missouri River Basin Lewis and Clark interpretive center (Nebraska City, NE) was dynamite -- it is brand-new and boasts an earthlodge (full-size, nice displays), a replica keelboat (kids can climb around on it), canoes, a pirogue (you can row the oars), and GREAT interactive displays. Impressive. We planned to spend an hour; we actually spent three there. The woodsy walks are beautiful; this is the last woods you will see along the trail for many days, so take advantage. They have Sunday re-enactments, but we missed those. This was an unexpected treasure for us.+ Fort Peck Dam and Lake were worth a stop. There's a great museum that looks at the construction of this huge dam and also includes Montana's fossil record of dinosaurs. The lake is gorgeous and perfect -- we saw no boats at all. Incredible. There are powerplant tours that last an hour. The town of Fort Peck is interesting, too -- and the Fort Peck hotel from the 30's is still open for guests and meals. (No web page for the hotel -- you have to go to the Fort Peck webpage and get to the hotel from there.) The hotel is not fancy but it is interesting -- most rooms have the bath down the hall. Again, we would have driven right by if not for the mention Julie made in the book. We ended up spending 3 or 4 fascinating hours in Fort Peck. This is a great stretch-your-legs break, there are plenty of activities and a really nice park/picnic area/playground.+ Missouri Headwaters state park, outside Three Forks, MT was better than we expected. At first, we thought -- you mean that's it? But we climbed around quite a lot and had a great couple of hours there. It was worth doing, and pratically free.///DO NOT MISS Great Falls, Montana.///We got off the trail to do two national parks -- Theodore Roosevelt National park (north and south units) in North Dakota and Glacier National Park in Montana. Glacier is heavenly. TR NORTH is simply excellent. (TR south was merely scenic, with bison and prairie dogs, but the NORTH unit was wild and untamed. And a bunch more bison, too.) The entrance to the south unit takes you through Medora, ND -- fun for families who don't need to make tracks.Also off the trail but worth doing is the Omaha zoo. Second best in America, and not expensive.Check out the Nebraska City Tree Adventure and Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, NE. Enjoy those trees before you hit the prairie.///Next time, we will plan to spend longer in Great Falls, MT. We want to do the Upper Missouri River Breaks from Fort Benton one day, we would like to get back to Glacier NP, and we want to do the Gates of the Mountains boat tour north of Helena.Heartfelt thanks to Julie Fanselow for her great tips and advice -- this book gave our family a terrific summer vacation.

Well written and a lot of good information, but I couldn't get over the lists of hotels with phone numbers at each destination. It takes up a lot of space and is completely unnecessary in our Internet age. I returned it for this reason.

Easy to read. Great detailed maps

Julie Fanselow has done an excellent job of including what is important. Not only are numerous historical sites/monuments included but camping, dining and lodging for various areas are as well. She also provides historical information on the expedition so that someone not expert will get a basic education in what the trek was about and it's importance. Along with an atlas or state maps this should be all anyone needs to have an enjoyable experience. I also purchased Kira Gale's book which I found not especially helpful. I am leaving for my expedition in a month with Fanselow's book heavily 'magic marker'ed'. Strongly recommended!

I have read Julie Fanselow's book cover to cover in getting ready for my own Lewis and Clark traveling. What I really like at the begining of the book is how she lays out a 12 day trip with time and distance. I took her break down and transferred it to my map. I think it will be very helpful. Lots of info, easy to read and get my ready.

Great details and history along with good recommendations for further reading - so far my favorite book of the Trail

Lots of information in narration, but requires perseverance to find without flags.

It was informative, but not quite what we were looking for.