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Great book with an indepth look at what went on with Lewis and his "dark days." It's good that he asked Clark or the expedition might not have been so successful. Although this was historical fiction, Ambrose paints his picture with lots of facts. He makes you believe that he was there first person. I did not have a clue about the danger and hardship that these people experienced in making this trip before reading this book. Neither did I know about the lives of Lewis and Clark after their return. It is a sad thing to know about Lewis's last days. ( )

This National Geographic book is lavish and contains stunningly beautiful photos with accompanying text that is exceptionally well written!

If you want to learn more about the Lewis and Clark expedition, this is a book to read.

It takes a while to soak in all the beauty of this coffee-table sized book because each photo by Sam Abell is so remarkably vivid that you feel as though you are riding in the swift currents of the tumultuous Missouri river, listening to the loud, terrifying growl of the grizzly bear, losing your footage as you slip down steep inclines, freezing as you trudge in sub zero degrees up over the rockies, experiencing the thunderous bellowing of thousands of bison on the plains and encountering American Indians -- some friendly, some connivingly, aggressively deceptive and war like.

Reaching the destination, the reader feels the breathless elation in Clark's exclamation of "Oh, Joy!" while standing on the Oregon coast watching the Pacific waves crash on the shore line.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy American history. ( )

Lovely photographs. The text breaks no new ground, but is a useful companion for explaining the photographs. ( )

The text combines tales of the Lewis and Clark exploration with the Ambroses camping and hiking trips to the same spots. Ambrose also talks about accompanying Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan while they were filming their television documentary. I didn't always find the modern information terribly interesting, but I will be sure to look up the documentary.

I read this just after reading Ambrose's Undaunted Courage about the expedition. The text is of course much shorter, but seems to capture the expedition pretty well. In this book, Ambrose goes into a little more detail about the later lives of people other than Lewis & Clark.

The illustration is lavish. Sam Abell's gorgeous photographs are grouped at the end of the chapters, rather than integrated with the text. This can be a little annoying, but they are certainly wonderful shots. A number of other reproductions of artwork, artifacts and museums are worked into the text. ( )