What were thoughts that entered in Lewis and Clark's mind when they gazed at the Rocky Mountains?

Answer 1

On May 26th, 1805, Lewis fatigued from climbing over the river hills, described his reaction thus:

"I thought myself well repaid for any labor, as from this point I beheld the Rocky Mountains for the first time. I could only discover a few of the most elevated points above the horizon. These points of the Rocky mountains were covered with snow and the sun shone on it in such manner as to give me the most plain and satisfactory view. While I viewed these mountains I felt a secret pleasure in finding myself so near the head of the heretofore conceived boundless Missouri; but when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowy barrier would most probably throw in my way to the Pacific, and the sufferings and hardships of myself and party in them, it in some measure counterbalanced the joy I felt in the first moments in which I gazed on them. But as I have always held it a crime to anticipate evils I will believe it a good comfortable road until I am compelled to believe differently."

The mountains he was seeing, sadly, were the Bear Paws, and not the Rockies, but the passage in the journals remains a touching one.