Bay Photos by Donna

Located on the Kootenai River near Libby, Montana, we hiked down established paths to Kootenai Falls, to view a sacred area of the Kootenai Indians.

The Kootenai Indians view the falls as the center of the world, a place where tribal members can commune with the spiritual forces that give direction to the tribe and to individual members.

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Kootenai Falls

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The calmly flowing Kootenai River suddenly picks up speed as elevation begins to drop with running rapids, eventually to Kootenai Falls which drops 300 feet over several hundred yards.  The widest point of the falls is 1,000 feet.  It is one of the largest free-flowing waterfalls in the northwest United States.

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Kootenai Falls

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Kootenai Falls is also where the majority of the 1994 movie, River Wild, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon, was filmed.

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Kootenai Falls rapids

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It started to get tricky with our footing, so we didn’t venture any further along the trail to get closer to the top.

And there really was no need.  From our standpoint, the vibrant colors and relaxing sounds were just gorgeous.

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