edHelper.com
Lewis and Clark
(1804-1806)

Lewis and Clark Cross the Rocky Mountains

Lewis and Clark Cross the Rocky Mountains
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   3.66

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    journey, entire, finding, traveled, dangerous, several, against, fresh, order, tribe, lines, stayed, often, lived, easy, buffalo
     content words:    Rocky Mountains, Pacific Ocean, Native American, Rattlesnake Cliffs, Bitterroot River, Bitterroot Mountains

Print Lewis and Clark Cross the Rocky Mountains
edHelper.com subscriber options:
     Print Lewis and Clark Cross the Rocky Mountains  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)
     Quickly print reading comprehension
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Lewis and Clark Cross the Rocky Mountains
     Leave your feedback on Lewis and Clark Cross the Rocky Mountains  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Lewis and Clark Cross the Rocky Mountains
By Cathy Pearl 		  
1     The Lewis and Clark journey was not an easy trip. They had to fight river currents. They did not travel very far each day. What took them over two years to travel we could do today in three or four days. One of the hardest parts of the trip was crossing the Rocky Mountains.
 
2     Lewis and Clark were worried about crossing the mountains. It would be very hard. But if they didn't do it, the group would not make it to the Pacific Ocean.
 
3     Maps of the west were often not true. Men made up what they thought people would find in the west. Lewis and Clark had no idea what they were up against. Some of the maps from that time showed California as an island. Others showed the Rocky Mountains as something that would be easy to cross.
 
4     Most people thought that the Rocky Mountains would be easy to cross. Maps that Jefferson had looked like a single line of mountains. Once you got to the top, you would go down the other side and the trip would be over. The Rocky Mountains don't work that way. There were several lines of mountains that the group would have to cross.
 
5     On July 19, 1805, the group saw amazing cliffs. They had never seen anything like them before. The cliffs were about 1200 feet high. They went on for about 3 miles. It looked like the river had carved a path just wide enough for it to go through the mountains. Lewis called this the "Gates of the Rocky Mountains."

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2008 edHelper