Way up.
Climb aboard a star created long ago when Coyote followed five wolf brothers into the sky on a ladder of arrows. They were trying to figure out what three heavenly bodies were.
To this day, those animal stars guide, connect and comfort the Nez Perce people, Pinkham said. It doesn't matter if they're prisoners of war in a far-off country or smack dab in the middle of their homeland to the west of these Bitterroot Mountains.
While you're up there, look down on this 51 acres of history.
It's defined by truck-stop happy U.S. Highway 93 to the east, a motorway that runs from Wickenburg, Ariz., to the Canadian border north of Eureka.
Across the north seam of Travelers' Rest runs U.S. Highway 12, connecting the West Coast at Aberdeen, Wash., (hometown of the late Kurt Cobain of Nirvana) to downtown Detroit (Diana Ross, Madonna and Della Reese.)
The Lolo area has long been an important crossroads, no doubt dating back to prehistoric times.
Here, in the latest flurry of snowstorms to blow off Lolo Peak, Highway 12 parallels the route that area tribes followed for centuries to and from hunting, fishing, gathering and trading grounds.
Lewis and Clark took it en route to the Pacific Ocean in 1805, and returned the same way in 1806.
At this place, known to the Salish as Tmsmli, or "no salmon," the American explorers were mere days from daunting September snowstorms going out, and from dissipating late June drifts coming back. They were relieved, at both junctures, to have this bottom and bench along Lolo Creek to pitch tents and reconnoiter.
Travelers' Rest is a serene place in the winter.
Gates are open every day until 4 p.m., but frankly, "there are some days we won't get a soul," volunteer Dale Dufour said.
"It's fun, actually," said Loren Flynn, executive director of the Travelers' Rest Preservation and Heritage Association. "November and December are really our slow times, our chance to kind of get caught up on things."
Things pick up in January, with hourlong storytelling sessions that run each Saturday through mid-March at the visitor center - a cozy yurt, 30 feet in diameter, adjacent to the main parking lot off Highway 12. Across the creek, off the Mormon Creek Road, winter workshops are held each month at the classroom, where the focus is moccasin making and beading, fly tying, and basket weaving.
Between the two is a path that winds across Lolo Creek through leafless cottonwood trees. A brochure for a self-guided walking tour can be had outside the yurt.
"I spend a lot of time on the bridge, in all seasons," said Saturday volunteer Vicki Correia.
These winter days, tracks crisscross the woods on either side of the bridge. Most are deer, but otter, rabbits and what might have been an elk have left their footprints behind in the ice and snow.A slice of creek just upstream of the bridge isn't iced over. It's a good spot to look for playful ouzels, or dippers, that dart above and below the chilly waters.
Dufour, who mans the visitor center on Sundays, spends a lot of other days at the park. He has taken on the job of bird documenter.
Early last fall, Dufour checked off the 100th kind of bird. Not all are around in the winter, of course, but quite a few are.
"I'm always on the lookout. That's why when I come out here I always have a camera around my neck," he said. "I've gotten to be a real fan of trying to see what we can find in birds and photographing them."
Five of the six varieties of woodpeckers seen at Travelers' Rest don't migrate, Dufour said. The large pileated woodpeckers are most active in February and March.
Besides the dippers, there are Bohemian waxwings and flickers, and the occasional bald eagle. And what would the West be without magpies and ravens?
"Certain birds, like the Steller's Jay, you go up the road a couple of miles where you've got more ponderosa pines and they're thick all the way up (to Lolo Pass)," Dufour said. "But we've never seen one here."
Dufour first noticed wild turkeys last summer, as he walked on the south side of the creek with visitors. First he spotted the head of a hen.
"We walked along the trail a little bit, and there were three little ones with her," he said. "They walked right out on the bridge, and the water was high then, so I was afraid if we spooked them they'd end up going off into the water and they'd drown for sure."
As the humans watched, "the great big mama hopped upon the railing and glided on down to the land, and then the three little ones were all by themselves," Dufour related. "They started walking out to the center, but then pretty soon they turned around and came back. One at a time they hopped up in the first opening of the bridge they came to and floated down to be with her.
"And they've been here ever since," he said. "They made it through Thanksgiving."
While the Lewis and Clark trail lives on, the lineup of this winter's storytellers reflects a shift in emphasis to natural and American-Indian history.
Pinkham, who lives in Lapwai, Idaho, had spoken at Travelers' Rest before, but this was his first winter presentation in the yurt. A couple dozen people sat on chairs and benches padded with carpet remnants.
An ethnographer for the Nez Perce tribe, Pinkham told Coyote and creation stories. He talked about great floods and how his people learned of the Lolo Trail complex.
While some tribes restrict certain stories to winter lodges, that's not the case for the Nez Perce, Pinkham told his audience.
"I think with the rich amount of landmarks we have in Nez Perce country, it only serves justice to tell those stories right there where you have the landmark," he said. "When you're traveling back and forth in the summertime, that's the perfect opportunity."
What, he was asked, should be taken from his stories?
"For one, I want you to be entertained, hopefully," said Pinkham. "The other thing is to maybe open your minds as to some of the perspectives that other people have about the world. They help you to understand the diversity that we have among people.
"There is a beauty, I think, in knowing people are different."
Help the cause
The second annual benefit auction for the Travelers' Rest Preservation and Heritage Association will be held this Friday, Jan. 18, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Missoula from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.Tickets must be purchased by Tuesday. They are $40, or $300 for a table of eight and can be reserved by calling the association's office at (406) 273-4253.
This year's featured artist is Bob Neaves of Hamilton, whose original landscape piece will be the centerpiece of the live auction. Two silent auctions will also be held.
The benefit funds an education program that provides hands-on field trips focusing on the history and natural history of Travelers' Rest and the Lolo area for more than 3,000 students each year. For details or information about Travelers Rest go to http://www.travelersrest.org
What's happening at Travelers' Rest
Winter storytelling lineupSaturdays from 11 a.m. to noon; cost is $3
At visitor center off Highway 12, one-half mile west of Lolo
Jan. 12 - Stuart Crook, "The Northwest Passage: Myth or Reality?" Jan. 19 -Frances Vanderburg, "Salish Language" Jan. 26 -Louis Adams, "Salish Place Names" Feb. 2 - Vernon Carroll, "Fur Trade Tales" Feb. 9 - Jack Puckett, "Woodsy Characters" Feb. 16 - Johnny Arlee, Salish, "Coyote Stories" Feb. 23 - Norm Jackson, "Beads, Paint and Butcher Knives" March 1 - Ritchie Doyle, "Sounds Along the Lewis And Clark Trail" March 8 - Rob Collier, "My Grandmother's Stories" March 15 - Frances Vanderburg, "Salish Stories"Winter workshops
Travelers' Rest classroom on Mormon Creek RoadRegister at 273-4253
Jan. 26 - Tom Lukomski, making moccasins Feb. 16 - Earl Little, fly tying March 8 - Pat Hastings, making pine needle baskets April 12 - Claire Emery and Kim Todd, nature journaling
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