Ice Age Floods

Starbuck via Hammer Grade

2011-12-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

Plenty of December sunshine Sunday as I took a drive (and a few short hikes) to explore several Ice Age Flood features along the Snake River.

I'd been wanting to check out the streamlined Palouse hills near Hammer Grade Road (Cheney-Palouse Scabland Tract) and had also been interested in visiting a viewpoint along the Little Goose Dam Road (South of river). Dam crossings are not allowed on weekends so ... I ended up driving to the gate on the north end of Little Goose Dam and then backtracking to Washtucna Coulee, then south and around to Starbuck. Not a problem, I like it out there.

Before I get to the trip photos, let me add one taken last Thursday. Teresa and I made a trip to Ellensburg to attend the Ellensburg IAFI meeting [Speaker: Richard Waitt USGS]. I wish I could make it up to more of their meetings. Nick and Karl do a great job.

On the way, we made a quick stop south of Sentinel Gap to view huge field of boulders that settled out as floodwater entered the Pasco Basin.

[Click any image to enlarge]

Teresa and erratic boulder near Mattawa, WA. Sentinel Gap in the distance.

Back to Sunday's trip.

Pretty good variety Sunday. Lots of streamlined Palouse hills, gravel bars and a quiet hike to the bottom of the Palouse River Canyon.

Early morning along Hammer Grade Road. This area was once covered with rolling loess hills up to 250 feet thick. In major channels the Ice Age Floods removed huge amounts of loess (windblown silt), exposing the basalt bedrock. Many loess islands were left behind (like the one pictured above).

"Here are streamlined, prow-pointed and steeply scarped loessial islands 150 feet high" J Harlen Bretz

Wheat is grown for miles to the left of image. A ten mile wide flood tract exists to the right. [View South]

1. Hammer Grade Road.
2. Wheat field.
3. Scarped Palouse hill.
4. Streamline Palouse hill.

View North
Same thing here. Flood-swept basalt and streamlined hills to west. Wheat country on the right.

Hammer Grade is no problem when bare. Might want to think twice before attempting to descend through snow and ice.

Flood-swept scabland and scarped Palouse hills. If you want to search for the missing soil ... Try looking in the Willamette Valley and Pacific Ocean.

Two photos below from Bruce Bjornstad

I sure like these shots. I'm impressed the farmer has maximized his wheat acreage by farming a loess island!

Surrounded by scabland.

Flood-cut channel through Palouse hills.
Large deer population along Hammer Grade.

Once you get to the bottom of Hammer Grade (near the Snake River), start looking for depositional features left by the Ice Age Floods.

[Hammer length: 10.5 inches]

Exposed flood deposits near Little Goose Dam (Snake River). Note band of fine material that settled out during slackwater conditions. I'll add a few photos below that show similar slackwater band(s) exposed downstream at Lake Sacajawea Bar. Road in distance climbs to top of Little Goose Dam. Recreation area marked with "1".

Call 1-888-DAMINFO (1-888-326-4636) for Dam Crossing Info.

Little Goose Dam - Army CE Photo
Red arrow marks exposed flood deposits shown in previous image.

Hammer Grade structure.
Hammer Grade warning sign has been rotated and bolted.

Chief Washtucna watches over the coulee.

Photo by Steve Coffel (Florence, MT)

Steve recently sent me a few Snake River photos that led me to the Little Goose Dam Road overlook. I like the soft lighting in this one along with the cool fence!

Thanks again Steve and I hope we can get out for a hike next spring!

Map shows lower Hammer Grade Road, Old Vantage Bridge (Moved from Vantage area when Wanapum Dam built) and Starbuck, WA. The Old Vantage Bridge crosses the Snake River just below Palouse and Snake confluence.

Starbuck now has two restaurants.

Little Goose Dam at top left. Interesting flood deposits are found along SR-261 near Starbuck. Steve's overlook is marked with camera symbol.

View downstream from overlook.
1. Huge flood bar. I'm trying to find a name for it.
2. Mid-Canyon Bar (J Harlen Bretz described this feature in 1928).
3. Mouth of Palouse River Canyon (right).

Bruce Bjornstad describes the Mid-Canyon Bar in his book On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods.

"Floodwaters rushing down the Palouse River cataract canyon plowed into the high walls of the Snake River valley, forcing the water to split and rush in opposite directions. Some floodwaters surged up the Snake River for 80 miles, all the way to Lewiston, Idaho, and beyond. The rest of the floodwater went down the Snake River, eventually emptying into the Pasco Basin."

View east from overlook. Looks like the pit is active.

The Mid-Canyon Bar is 2.5 miles long. A tremendous amount of gravel has been removed from bar below the mid-Canyon Bar (note the giant current ripples that are about to disappear).

- WSDOT - Photo
Little Goose Dam Airport was built on a Snake River bar. The water behind Little Goose Dam (Lake Bryan - Max. pool 646.5 feet) covers much of the bar.

YouTube video uploaded by fazonsazar on Sep 8, 2007. Video shows Cessna 172 landing at Little Goose Dam and Lock on a windy afternoon in late August.

Please scroll back up about six images (Google Earth) and check out the Tucannon drainage. Huge volumes of sediment laden floodwater surged into this valley during Ice Age Flood events.

Ya gotta feel sorry for the beavers living on this stretch of river 15,000 years ago. Feeling safe living off the main Snake channel ... Then suddenly forced to ride out a 700 foot deep flood surge that came from a downstream direction!

Tucannon Valley - View west from Little Goose Dam Road (on the way to the overlook). FYI- There isn't an official "Overlook". Just pull over when Snake River is in view.

At least six rhythmites are visible at the Starbuck exposure. Approximatly 25 have been found in the Tucannon Valley.

Bruce Bjornstad explains that the coarse basaltic gravel between some of the beds may be material shed off the steep valley walls between floods.

Use caution if you visit this area on foot. Motorists are dealing with curves and elevation changes ... probably not expecting pedestrians.

The last time I visited this location, a woman stopped to ask "Are you OK?". I don't think she had much of an appreciation for the flood feature I'd driven many miles to examine.

Ice Age Flood rhythmites and Columbia River Basalt. I'm standing too close!!! Good thing Skye Cooley thought enough to back up and capture a panoramic view of this exposure. See below.

Thanks to Skye for letting me use this amazing shot of Starbuck rhythmites draped over Columbia River Basalt. (Click to enlarge)

Check out some great shots at Skye's: Picasa Clastic Dikes Gallery.

Now I'm on the south side of the Snake River - Looking at the first flood deposits shown above. The exposure between Hammer Grade and Little Goose Dam. You can see the slackwater band.

Here's a shot of a similar slackwater band exposed downstream on the 400' tall Lake Sacajawea Bar.

A few images here from a visit to the Lake Sacajawea Bar earlier this year. The size of many Snake River gravel bars is impressive. Hard to image what happened along the Snake River between Pasco and Lewiston at the end of the last Ice Age. Usually the floodwaters raced down the Snake and into the Pasco Basin. Other times when Wallula Gap restricted the flow, floodwater rushed up the Snake River. During several intervals, the flow stabalized and fine material was allowed to settle out to form the slackwater bands we see today.

Red arrow points to Walker Bar.

Walker Bar borrow pit.

Still looking at Lake Sacajawea Bar flood deposits.

The drastic material change is cool. Some of these contacts are super sharp.

Bruce Bjornstad has placed an interesting Geocache near this location.

Railroad spike for scale.

"The gravel pit excavated by the railroad here has a scarp 200 feet high. The gravel is unindurated and slides easily, so that the structure is difficult to decipher. But it is 99 per cent basalt." - J Harlen Bretz 1925

The streamlined hill shapes are often referred to as teardrop, ship-like or airfoil-like. Earlier this year I attended an Ellensburg IAFI chapter meeting and heard Vic Baker compare them to "A trout in a stream". I like that one.

Several excellent examples of streamlined Palouse Hills are visible from the intersection of SR-261 and the entrance road to Palouse Falls State Park.

"These hills consist of "islands" of loess that appear to float in a sea of basalt scabland. Their teardrop shape consists of a prominant steep prow on the upstream end and long tapered tails on the downstream end. This shape, which was repeated over and over again in the formation of streamlined sedimentary hills, is not a coincidence. During Ice Age flooding, the hills were streamlined so their length was usually about three times longer than their width; this hydrodynamic shape provided the least amount of drag to the floodwaters that formed them. - Bjornstad"

NASA has some impressive shots of streamlined hills on Mars. Scientist estimate flood volumes on Mars were 10 times the largest Missoula flood.

SR-261 near the entrance to Palouse Falls State Park - The scarped Palouse hills aren't too far off the highway.

Teresa and I were in Washington, DC the week of Thanksgiving - I noticed this Palouse River Canyon USGS photo in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Cool! Franklin County in the Smithsonian.

- Palouse Falls -

Link to 2009 hike in this area.

Nice day. Too much driving and not enough hiking but still fun!

Merry Christmas! Tom

Glacial Lake Missoula floodwaters were responsible for most of the features pictured above; However, another large flood swept through this stretch of the Snake River about 17,400 years ago. Click video above to watch Nick Zentner interview USGS Geologist Jim O'Connor. Jim talks about the Lake Bonneville Flood at the 14 minute mark of interview.

Watch Nick interview other guests from the US Geological Survey and various regional organizations at Central Rocks.
"Central Rocks" aims to promote an appreciation and understanding of Washington geology - while also shedding light on research and teaching of CWU faculty.

Grand Coulee, Northrup Canyon, Umatilla Rock and Deep Lake Potholes

2011-11-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

Misc. photos from several hikes to view Ice Age Flood features near Banks Lake - Fourth weekend in October 2011.

I'll try to follow this post with shots from the Vantage, WA area along with a few from the lower Grand Coulee.

Sorry I've been slow to post images from hikes. I still like to get out in the spring and fall ... Just not getting around to posting.

Click any image to enlarge.

Bruce Bjornstad on Umatilla Rock (Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park).

Flood-swept basalt plateau and small portion of Dry Falls cataract system. Hikes over the weekend covered flood features between Sun Lake-Dry Falls State Park and Northrup Canyon.

Bruce inspects flood deposits (sand and gravel) beneath layers of slackwater deposits that settled to the floor of Glacial Lake Columbia.

The Grand Coulee is a great place to view Columbia River Basalt.

Hard working erratic
This ice-rafted erratic has been put to work holding a Grand Coulee fence post.

When you see signage that includes these towns ... You're getting close to some of the best features in the entire Ice Age Flood region.

The Coulee Corridor group maintains a nice website that describes this section of SR-17. Click link to visit its site.
It possesses almost every characteristic feature of scabland, and most of them are on the huge scale consistent with the flood conception.
J Harlen Bretz describes the Grand Coulee (1933)

J Harlen Bretz called Northrup Canyon a "Very peculiar tributary" in his 1932 guidebook "The Channeled Scabland".

Canyon leaves were beautiful. Loved the reds and yellows around lake. Heart-shaped lake photo for Teresa.

Open link to visit Bruce's Northrup Lake geocache page. Great text and illustrations!

The canyon is amazing ... You're near the edge of the Columbia River Basalt Group flows (not very thick up here). At this location the floods have ripped away basalt and exposed underlying granite.
The granite is significantly older (50-100 million years) compared to the basalt which is only 15-17 million years old.

"One can stand on the brink of Northrup Canyon and aver with confidence that it can never be satisfactorily explained except as an extinct Niagara."
J Harlen Bretz 1932

I like this Google Earth image showing the granite ridge. Aerial images on Bruce's geocache page show grooves and potholes on the plateau.

Bretz noted "Buried granite hills exhumed by erosion of the glacial torrent are also seen" when describing Northrup Canyon.

No erratics here. This granite is right where it belongs.

Bruce and bright trees in lower canyon.

Click arrow to play short aerial video by GeoCosmicREX. Footage shows upper Northrup Canyon - Check out granite ridge - canyon center. Northrup Lake visible about 20 seconds into video.

Bruce will have a new Ice Age Floods guidebook out soon - Published by Keokee Books. I hope it comes out soon. The Grand Coulee guidebook I'm currently using was published in 1932!

Awesome cover art by Stev Ominski shows Dry Falls area (includes Okanogan Ice Lobe and receding Ice Age Floodwater).

The Bureau of Reclamation has lowered Banks Lake 30 feet to perform maintenance on equipment at Dry Falls dam. Lots of mud and sand exposed in the Grand Coulee. This shot shows mud flat between Steamboat Rock and mouth of Northrup Canyon. Note Glacial Lake Columbia deposits being blown around (arrow).

Inundated scabland reappears north of Coulee City.

Dark blue areas remain underwater.

Lake down 30 ft. - Things look different near Steamboat Rock.

I thought it might stink but there was no odor. The mud/silt/sand didn't really stick to shoes - Enjoyed walking around out there.

It was easy to get around and explore Glacial Lake Columbia deposits.

1. Dry Falls Visitor Center.
2. Umatilla Rock.
3. Deep Lake potholes.
4. Dry Falls Dam.
5. Coulee City.
6. Main Canal (Columbia Basin Irrigation Project).

The road to Deep Lake is closed this time of year. Easy walk or bike ride to lake and pothole area.

Photo by Bruce
OK ... The plan was to try and get a better angle with camera when photographing Deep Lake potholes. Before I waved my Nikon around on a 16 ft. pole - I supplemented the attachment point with several wraps of duct tape.

It should work.

First few pothole pole photos were a little rough.

Getting better with the pole.
The potholes out here are really cool! Whirlpool-like currents called kolks, drilled into the basalt.

View from the top of a Lowe's 16' telescopic painter's pole. Looking west down Deep Lake channel to Lower Grand Coulee. Bruce standing near pothole rim (left).

Here's a strange place Bruce heard about from Mark Buser (Ice Age Floods Institute President).
A short tunnel allows easy access to the pothole floor.

Bruce standing on pothole floor.

View over pothole with tunnel entrance (red diamond). Bruce standing on wall between lake channel and pothole.

Headed back to the lake.

Google Earth image shows tunnel entrance pothole (1) and pole photo pothole (2).

Pretty quiet out here. Umatilla Rock in the distance.

That's Bruce and he's ... "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods".

No trail to the top of Umatilla Rock ... just a talus slope with some scrambling near the top.

Confluence of Monument Coulee and Deep Lake Channel in the distance.

Three images here show view into flood-scoured Monument Coulee.

I like the rubble rings around some of the giant basalt boulders. Rings probably formed as smaller blocks broke away from the biggest boulders due to post-flood freeze-thaw activity.

Interesting basalt wall on Monument Coulee floor.

Bruce explores the top of Umatilla Rock. Nice views from up here. What an amazing place!

When you view the floor of Monument Coulee from the top of Umatilla Rock (or hike in the coulee) you may notice several large granite boulders.

Large granite boulders near our home in the Pasco Basin were rafted within icebergs. Many found near Dry Falls were transported in the bedload.

Cool video posted by SRGSclips - Click to play. Shows bedload movement in lab flume.

After watching lab video above ... Extrapolate out and replace flume with The Grand Coulee and multiple Ice Age Floods. Boulders this size would have easily moved through the coulee without the aid of ice.

Many flood bars in this area are covered with large boulders - "Armored bars".

Bruce walks along coulee rim. Visitor center on rim at left.

Next time you visit Dry Falls - Make sure to take a few minutes to walk through the Visitor Center. The ranger that smiles and says "Hello" is Maurya.

Maurya can tell you about the basalt wall in Monument Coulee.

Dates and Hours from State Parks site - November 2011.

Dry Falls Visitor Center summer hours: May 1 - Sept. 30, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily

Dry Falls Visitor Center winter hours: Oct. 1 - April 30, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., closed Thursdays

Dry Falls Visitor Center is closed on the following holidays: Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day.

Google Earth view - Niagara Falls

Google Earth comparison: Dry Falls - Niagara Falls.

If you plan to explore Ice Age Flood features in Washington State - you'll need one of these. I'll bite my tongue and move on to the next picture.

Walked by this interpretive panel that shows Teresa standing in front of flood-cut caves used by early residents of the area. Floodwater at top of image by Stev Ominski.

Dry Falls
Not the best sunrise - but a great place to start the day.

Samuel Adam's Octoberfest tasted pretty good at Couleegan's in Coulee City.

Wanted to try The Banks Lake Brew & Bistro for coffee but they don't open until 0900 on Sunday. Good thing the friendly folks at Big Wally's have their "Shut Up and Fish Blend" brewed early each morning.

A giant sign that says "MO" is just across the street from coffee stop.

- Big Wally's Fishing Report -

Short Dry Falls panorama (video) shot earlier this year. Click arrow to play.

If you have a little time - Click to watch CWU's Nick Zentner interview Bruce on Central Rocks.

Link to Umatilla Rock blog images posted a couple years ago. Spring trip to Dry Falls area. Deep Lake pothole views from rim.

Lake Bonneville Flood Video - NEW

2010-11-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

Link to presentation featuring Lake Bonneville and the Bonneville Flood at bottom of this post.

Shoshone Falls

Flood-Tumbled Boulders along Snake River (Halverson Bar area)

Video includes description and maps of Lake Bonneville

Click blue link to open: Ice Age Floods YouTube Channel .
NOT image above

Once you open video on YouTube channel page ...If you have a fairly quick internet connnection ... You might try clicking the 1080p HD option and then click the box with four arrows to play presentation fullscreen. Thanks for watching! The flood features in southern Idaho are amazing.

Ice Age Floods channel on YouTube includes other flood video links.

Suicide Point - Hells Canyon, ID

2010-05-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

Photos from (16 May) hike to view Ice Age Floods features along the Snake River in Hells Canyon. Friday evening, I camped near Lewiston and spent a little time viewing (from road) exposures of Bonneville Flood deposits that are capped by Missoula deposits south of town.
On Saturday, I explored south of Clarkston, WA (Photos from that area later). After looking at basalt and wildlife near Joseph Creek, I headed back to Clarkston then south on US-95 to White Bird, Id.

From White Bird I followed signs to Pittsburg Landing and drove down to bottom of canyon. Plenty of elevation change on the way as you need to cross Salmon River drainage before descending into canyon.

View upstream from Suicide Point in Hells Canyon. Huge gravel bars (terraces) created during Bonneville Flood. -Click any image to expand.

Tammany Bar south of Lewiston, Id.

Another shot of Tammany Bar (Large house for scale)

Amazing to be viewing backflooded Missoula deposits so far from Wallula Gap. Even more amazing to find Missoula deposits at Snake River mile 215!!! Yep ... Missoula material is found at Pittsburg Landing. The Idaho Geological Survey map explains that the deposits found at Pittsburg Landing may be the farthest upstream recorded Missoula deposits. Lake Lewis was HUGE!

I was down here to look at flood evidence from from the Bonneville Flood but once again found myself also looking at incredible features created when the massive glacial lake in Montana drained.

"Glacial Lake Missoula"
Painting by Byron Pickering. View Byron's "Ice Age Flood" video story.

Canyon rim above Pittsburg Landing. Hells Canyon is recognized as North America's deepest river gorge.

Allow plenty of time to travel between White Bird and the Pittsburg Landing. Speed limit 25 mph, grade up to 16% in some places. My map had warning on road - "Steep, winding road. Good transmission and brakes vital".
I found road to be in very good shape.

Open Hells Canyon National Recreation Area page for hiking and camping information.

Giant Current Ripples are found on Upper Pittsburg - Red box locates ripples shown in next image. Looking south - upstream. Idaho/Oregon border.

Giant Current Ripples

Click arrow to play short video from trip. About 25 seconds into video, you'll see deer (for scale) grazing on Pittsburg ripples.

View Larger Map

Pittsburg Landing giant current ripples - center of image. Use mouse to navigate Google imagery.

Another view of ripples from north.

View of Pittsburg megaripples from the other side of river. Photo by Keegan Schmidt (Assistant Professor Geology - Lewis-Clark State College).

-Click image to expand-
Open Keegan's - Virtual Tour of Hells Canyon to view several other interesting features near Pittsburg Landing.

Boats at Pittsburg Landing launch. Note huge Bonneville flood bar.

Area Missoula and Bonneville deposits are shown on Idaho Geological Survey map: Grave Point Quadrangle. Large file ... Pittsburg Landing shown on map at lower left.

Long history of man at Pittsburg Landing. Pictographs and petroglyphs are found at many locations throughout the canyon.

Mazama Ash

Another look at Pittsburg Bar.

USFS text: "The Snake River National Recreation Trail # 102 follows the.Wild and Scenic Snake River of Hells Canyon for nearly 27 miles. The trail crosses large river bars, climbs over steep rocky outcrops above the river, and is close to the shoreline at times. The river is within your view while hiking the majority of the time. Visit the Kirkwood Historic Ranch and Museum located approximately 6 miles up river from the trailhead. Experience the old homesteads in the canyon. View prehistoric pictographs left by ancient cultures along the trail. Hells Canyon is also one of Idaho's premier places for viewing wildlife and wonderful early spring wildflowers."

I crossed paths with these guys about halfway between Pittsburg Landing and Kirkwood. They're featured in Youtube video above.

In many places, the trail is cut into rock. River along trail is beautiful.

Snake River Trail #102 is in excellent condition. ... but ... Poison ivy is thick in some areas and ... if you hate snakes ... maybe hike earlier in the spring.

Arrow marks historic Kirkwood Ranch located near the mouth of Kirkwood Creek. I visited the ranch several years ago (by boat) and enjoyed looking at the collection of old farming equipment.

Kirkwood Ranch is a popular lunch stop for tour boats. The small museum/visitor center is interesting (some great photos of early canyon residents). It was nice to hit ranch while iris garden was at peak bloom

Looking back at Suicide Point

Trail near Suicide Point
I wasn't here to "End it all" ... I was here for the great view of Big Bar (Bonneville Flood). I'm not aware of anyone jumping off the point. Reading trail history, it sounds like some early trail users were nervous when riding horseback around the point - before trail was widened.

Hominy Bar

Looking back from south end of Big Bar. Note small airstrip on lower bar.

Big Bar airstrip gets some traffic. Plane in video was the only one I saw all day. Pilot landed and took off about 15 minutes later.

If you're interested in aviation, you might like Youtube video posted by lameusernameguy embedded at bottom of this page. Cool approach into Salmon Bar with rock walls out all windows.

This sickle bar mower is one of many farm implements left on Big Bar. At one time, 13 acres of alfalfa were grown on top of the bar and a large sheep operation was established on the lower bar.

View into one of the bars along trail.

This is where I turned around south of Big Bar
USFS Geology of Hells Canyon Page describes huge terraces in this part of the canyon:
The spillover of water from Lake Bonneville at American Falls, Idaho, 15,000 years ago, had an enormous effect on the canyon as we see it today. The volume of water during this event was at least 1,000 times greater than during present spring run-off levels. This tremendous.flow did not deepen the canyon, but it did increase the width of the canyon and formed the large terraces seen near the mouth of Temperance Creek, at Johnson Bar, and at Pittsburg Landing.

These terraces formed on the upstream side of temporary natural dams. Water velocity decreased behind the dams, allowing sediment to fall to the lake floor. Continued down-cutting by the river formed a channel through the sediment, leaving behind the flat terraces.

View Larger Map
Google Earth view of canyon (above my turnaround point) looking south. Drag image around and travel upstream to Hells Canyon Dam. Gravel face on bar at bottom of Google Earth image is the same feature visible in distance in photo of me at turnaround point.

Click above to play video by one of the Hells Canyon tour operators.

While looking at early photos in the Kirkwood Ranch museum, I noticed the old Suicide Point sign on display.

View shows Snake River pinched between canyon walls below Pittsburg Landing.

Megaflood Preparedness near White Bird

Click above to play video by lameusernameguy.

Hell’s Canyon Adventure Run
Annual trail run is held in the spring between Hells Canyon Dam and Pittsburg Landing. I sure liked the hike Sunday and hope I can make the long run with the group next year to see the rest of the trail. A boat ride up and a 31 mile run/hike back sounds like a great (and very long) day. GPS told me Sunday hike was just over 21 miles.

Drumheller Channels & The Great Blade

2010-04-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

April visit to Drumheller Channels and Lower Grand Coulee.

Balsamroot and lupine near Lake Lenore seemed to be at peak bloom.

I wasn't able to drive straight through from Pasco to the lower Grand Coulee. A side trip through Drumheller Channels led me to an unscheduled hike.

Drumheller Channels

"It is a marvelous region of scabland buttes and knobs, canyoned channels, rock basins interrelated in a complex unparalleled elsewhere, even in the scablands." - J Harlen Bretz 1928

Lower Grand Coulee - Looking north
Google Earth vantage point is just north of Soap Lake, WA.
1. Great Blade, 2. Alkali Lake, 3. Blue Lake, 4. Park Lake.
Note huge flood channel east of the Great Blade.

One of many caves found near Lake Lenore. Interpretive display at Dry Falls shows Native Americans utilizing caves for shelter. I've been told that the caves were used like a garage (for storage) rather than shelter. Signage along highway will direct you to an interesting cluster of caves that were formed during Ice Age Flood events.

BONUS: Embedded video at bottom of page was shot in another of the Lake Lenore caves. You'll need to turn on speakers. Thanks for posting video Glen!

Pothole

I like to park near mile-marker 83 and hike through cut into the east channel. Some incredible evidence of high-energy flooding can be found in this area. Great Blade - top right.

View Larger Map

Check out those potholes! Use your mouse to move around and explore the area.

I usually park between the 17's - Small pull-off (east) just big enough for a couple cars. The guy in your rearview mirror isn't expecting you to be pulling over here. Be careful! The longer gravel parking strip at top left is also available.

Once you get parked, the hike up through terraces to east channel is easy. You'll pass through a fence opening with a WDFW "No Vehicles" sign.

Strange place to find this thing? Angular erratics resting in flood channels isn't something you often find. Several large ice-rafted erratics are located along the east margin of this channel, but this piece of argillite is the largest erratic I'm aware of out near the center of the channel where the bedrock had a hard time sticking around. Great Blade in distance. The boulder does sit on the crown of a basalt formation and must have been carried here on one of the last floods to reach this level.

Several other erratics surround the piece of argillite pictured above. Rounded erratics like this are more typical of what you can expect to find in flood channels containing dramatic errosional features. This type of erratic would have started its journey in an iceberg before dropping into the floodwaters or grounding at some point only to be tumbled in the next Ice Age Flood. Angular corners on bedload carried erratics would have quickly been rounded by impacts with bedrock and other boulders carried in the floodwaters.

Orange star marks argillite erratic in previous photo. Yellow stars identify surrounding granodiorite erratics.

Angular erratics are sometimes found (in high-energy flood channels) wedged in or behind some sort of structure that provides shelter. Earlier in the day I found these angular erratics wedged into a notch in the basalt while hiking near Lower Hampton Lake.

They should be safe here for another flood or two but once the downstream lip of basalt is removed, they'll be introduced to the bedload and headed for lower Crab Creek.

Two examples of typical erratics found in the Drumheller Channels.

Click arrow to play a short video I shot later in the day from the top of the Great Blade. You'll get a better look at the east channel from up here.

THERE IS NO TRAIL to follow if you want to visit the top of the Great Blade. Bretz's 1932 "Grand Coulee" publication led me to believe that I'd find a find a way to the top.

"The highest place on this cliffed ridge is literally a blade of rock, unscalable except at the south end." - J Harlen Bretz

It took a little time to reach the southern terrace (some people will not like the route). Once I got up there, all I needed was a little help from "The Watchdog" to stand on top.

Another pothole in the east channel.

The first bitterroot blooms (my favorite wildflower) I've seen this year.

One wall of this pothole has been opened up. Pretty quiet around here today.

Years ago they made some noise in this part of the coulee. Check out the B&W footage in Youtube video below!

"I know! Let's dump it in Lake Lenore!"
Turn speakers on and click arrow if you haven't seen this before (AMAZING).

South end of The Great Blade.

Nice fang!
I assume this was once part of a bobcat?

SR 17 (AKA ... "Coulee Corridor") crosses floor of the Lower Grand Coulee between Lake Lenore and Alkali Lake.

Coulee Corridor Home
Coulee Corridor Ice Age Floods Page

View Larger Map
Use your mouse to navigate Google map of area shown in previous photo.

Great Blade summit plateau.

J Harlen Bretz featured a similar photo in his 1932 publication "THE GRAND COULEE". Bretz used caption below to describe image:

Ridge between the monoclinal and synclinal channels, lower Grand Coulee. Looking north from the Great Blade. The lake surface is about 250 feet lower than the synclinal channel floor, and the ridge is about 75 feet higher. Hanging valleys west of the lake were once continuous across both lake canyon and ridge to the synclinal channel.

Interesting plateau

Unless you tell me differently ... I'm guessing Pothole A merged with with a pothole once located at C creating a small channel that will be joined by Pothole B during future floods. The A-C area will then join channel at top right creating Mesa D. Next photos shows examples of mesas lower in the east channel.

East Channel Mesas

Nice elevated walking surface between main channel and pothole.

Great Blade summit plateau. Red arrow points to "Watchdog Rock".
The flowers on this upper terrace were pretty.

Watchdog Rock came in handy as I tried to reach the top of the blade. Once my foot was on the Watchdog's shoulder, I had it made. Pretty cool that he's got a tail.

Not sure why someone felt the need to mark up the Watchdog???

BACK TO DRUMHELLER
I've always liked the basalt column w/face that looks out over Lower Hampton Lake.

View south to confluence of lower Grand Coulee and east channel. Note elevation difference.

Arrow points to pothole with smooth upper walls. I marked its location on my GPS several years ago. When visiting this area I always take the time to walk over and marvel at the "Polished Pothole". I haven't found another one like it.

My pack sits on rim of the "Polished Pothole".

Bretz wrote about this channel:

The higher eastern channel has cataract ledges across it 50 to 75 feet high, rock basins on its floor 100 feet deep, and a maze of minor anastomosing channels channels and buttes.

Nice clump of flowers thriving on top of the Great Blade.

East Channel
The floods drilled many incredible potholes into the floor of the east channel, including a couple huge ones at the south end. These potholes are amazing but I still have the Deep Lake area potholes at the top of my list.

Drumheller Channels / Columbia National Wildlife Refuge.

The huge system of scabland channels east of the Frenchman Hills sure stands out in this Google image. Irrigated farmland served by the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project borders the 8-mile-wide Drumheller Channels on the east and west. The Bureau of Reclamation uses several of the channels cut by Ice Age Floods to move irrigation water from the Quincy Basin to the Othello Basin.

1. Potholes Reservoir
2. Othello, WA

Irrigation water fills many of the rock basins and potholes in the Drumheller Channels. The habitat created provides excellent opportunities for wildlife observation to Columbia National Wildlife Refuge visitors.

Google aerial image shows:
1. Pothole near Lower Hampton Lake.
2. Large pothole shown in previous image (foreground).
3. Irrigation channel cut by the USBOR at lower end of Long Lake (shown in next image)

The floods didn't leave channels everywhere the USBOR needed them to move water between the Quincy and Othello Basins.

Pothole near Lower Hampton Lake shown in aerial photo above as "1".

This pothole is impressive to view in person (shown as #2 in aerial above).

White Pelican - Lower Hampton Lake

Signs introduce visitors to parts of the refuge trail system.

Found this guy on Youtube - Bagpipes in Lake Lenore cave w/sound.

Victoria Rock, Tarpiscan Bergmound and Cape Horn Traverse to West Bar Ripples

2009-11-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

Last week I visited Tarpiscan Canyon for the first time in years. The canyon is on the west side of the Columbia River above West Bar. A few significant Ice Age Flood features in the area are Moses Coulee, Moses Coulee Bar, Crater Coulee, Babcock Bench, Potholes Coulee and the West Bar Giant Current Ripples.

I didn't see everything I wanted to on this hike. The short November day flew by.

Victoria Rock

Victoria Rock - An interesting basalt tower standing in the Columbia River channel that's withstood plenty of abuse by floods over the years.

Victoria Rock (Symon's-Downing Image)
I mentioned Lieutenant Symon's "Report of an Examination of the Upper Columbia River: And the Territory in Its Vicinity in September and October, 1881" in a recent post of Sentinel Gap area photos. In his report, Symon's describes Victoria Rock:

A few miles further down there stands in the Columbia River a rock which is one of the most perfect profile rocks in existence. Approaching it from the north, it presents a striking likeness to the profile of Queen Victoria, from which circumstance it was given the name of "Victoria Rock."

Coming nearer to it and passing it on the west, the profile changes and merges into a more Grecian and Sphinx-like face, whose placid immobility takes one's mind involuntarily to far off Egypt. It rises from the surface of the water about one hundred feet, and a pair of eagles have selected it as their home, and upon its extreme top have built a nest, giving, as it were, a crown to this goddess of the Columbia.

The rock is of columnar black basalt. The portion of the river in which this rock is situated is very grand and beautiful.

Lieutenant Thomas William Symons (1881)

There it is ... Victoria Rock. Right where the Lieutenant said it would be.

Construction of Wanapum Dam south of Vantage, was completed in 1963. Only the uppermost portion of Victoria Rock stands above today's reservoir level.

It took an early start from Pasco to begin hiking before sunrise. I had to drive all the way to Wenatchee, cross the river and then drive south to reach the Tarpiscan Creek WDFW parking area. A Vehicle Use Permit is required in this area.

Lieutenant Symon's Map - 1881
Click map to enlarge and you should be able to see Victoria Rock below "Cabinet Rapids". Other notations on map from top are Bishop Rock, Sunken Rock, Rock Island Rapids, Bar of Rocks, Bad Ripple, Little Creek and two small bars just above "Flat" at West Bar.

Looks like notation on top of rim west of Victoria Rock reads "Magnificent Columnar Basaltic Bluffs". The area marked "Flat" at lower right is the NW corner of West Bar.

View northeast over Columbia River to mouth of Moses Coulee. Victoria Rock visible in river at lower right. The huge flood bar on far side of river is the Moses Coulee Bar. Much of the bar is out of frame to right.

I'll try to post Moses Coulee images one of these days. In his book "The Geological History of the Wenatchee Valley and Adjacent Vicinity" Charles Mason states: "It is the author's opinion that Moses Coulee, above all else, has an atmosphere and character unmatched in our area. One would be hard pressed to find a more inspiring sight than a drive on an early sunny morning through the miles of majestic palisades of the lower coulee".
Moses Coulee

Tarpiscan Creek Bergmound

Tarpiscan Bergmound - Thousands of years ago, a huge iceberg floated into the Tarpiscan Creek drainage and grounded during one of the Ice Age Flood events. After the floodwaters receded and the ice melted, a large pile the glacial debris carried by the iceberg was left stranded in the canyon.

Mouth of Tarpiscan Canyon - Google Earth View
- Red circle marks bergmound -
I hiked up the canyon for several miles enjoying bright fall colors and the interesting basalt cliffs along the north rim. Way too much time was spent taking pictures of frosty leaves and pine cones (above maximum flood level).

I'd had my eye on the big bar that sits between Tarpiscan Creek and the South Fork of Tarpiscan Creek. Once over the top of the bar I spotted a huge bergmound (marked in image above).

- Large erratics on top of the bergmound -
Erratic I'm leaning on (#1 in photo below) measured over 12ft. end to end.

Another view of erratics shown above. Note smaller erratics in foreground.

So how did the rocks end up in ice?

Hope you don't mind if we take a quick trip to the lower slopes of Mt. Rainier.

Sometimes it's Hard to tell where the glacier ends and the mountain begins.

Glaciers are often referred to as "Nature's conveyor belts". Rocks from adjacent slopes often fall on top the glacier while ice in contact with the earth below the glacier is picking up rocks and other debris. Material carried on the surface of the glacier is known as "supraglacial debris" while the lower part of the glacier carries "basal debis".

The huge glacial ice dams that failed and released Ice Age Floodwaters were loaded with debris. Large sections of the dams were swept away with the flow and carried over eastern Washington. Some of these icebergs would have ridden the floodwaters all the way to the Pacific Ocean but many ran aground in Washington and Oregon. Rocks and boulders transported by the ice are known as "erratics".

er⋅rat⋅ic

1. deviating from the usual or proper course in conduct or opinion; eccentric: erratic behavior.
2. having no certain or definite course; wandering; not fixed: erratic winds.
3. Geology. noting or pertaining to a boulder or the like carried by glacial ice and deposited some distance from its place of origin.
4. (of a lichen) having no attachment to the surface on which it grows.

Source: Dictionary.com

Large Boulders on Nisqually Glacier

OK ... We're back to Tarpiscan Canyon

- Nice collection of large erratics -
(White erratic on skyline is Erratic #2)
Ivar Husa of the Ice Age Floods Institute's Lake Lewis Chapter answers the question "How Large Must an Iceberg be to Carry an Erratic" on Page 4 of the December 2005 Pleistocene Post.

As the iceberg melted, several large boulders rolled down slope. The rocks, gravel, sand and silt aboard the iceberg remained in a huge mound.

Click image above to play what appears to be the first "Bergmound" video posted on Youtube. Video shows relationship of bergmound site to Columbia River.

Not as many smaller scattered erratics in the Tarpiscan area as there are in other Kittitas County drainages to the south. I did see a few similar to this one as I hiked south out of the canyon.

West Bar Giant Current Ripples

West Bar Giant Current Ripples - Huge current ripples created when fast moving floodwaters swept over the West Bar area. Geologists believe that the West Bar Ripples were formed during one of the last Ice Age Floods - Possibly the final draining of Glacial Lake Columbia.

I started to draw the route I used to get to West Bar on this image but, decided I'd better not do anything that would promote this as West Bar access. I know this basalt face as "Cape Horn".
TIP #1:The animal path I used is above terrace with the big pine.
TIP #2: Don't slip!

West Bar (right). Moses Coulee Bar dipping into Columbia river at left. Thin horizontal line on distant basalt cliff is Babcock Bench.

The Ice Age Floods created many large gravel bars. Moses Coulee Bar is one of them ... Train for scale.

1. Tarpiscan Bergmound
2. West Bar Giant Current Ripples
3. Moses Coulee
4. Crater Coulee - Also known as Crater Draw (No public access).
5. Quincy, WA - City of Quincy's "Local Geology" page.

Ripples from ripple level.

Summertime sunset view of West Bar ripples.- Boat for scale -
Click below to view Giant Current Ripples from Bruce Bjornstad's geocache at the West Bar Overlook.

OPEN LARGE WEST BAR IMAGE

A couple images here of other ripples you might come across as you explore the Ice Age Floods region.

I noticed these frosty ripples in the sand yesterday while hiking along the White Bluffs (SE of Mattawa, WA). These small ripples were creeated by the wind blowing over the dune.

Belt rock with ripple pattern - Western Montana.

Arrow points to hiker standing on one of the tallest West Bar ripples.

Geologists estimate the West Bar ripples were formed between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago. The ripples average 24 feet in height and are spaced about 360 feet apart. It's been estimated that the fast moving water that formed these ripples was about 650 feet deep (Not one of the largest floods).

The day this photo was taken, Orin and I arrived at West Bar in his boat ... which is the easiest way to get there. Certain times of the year you can drive to West Bar ... but ... It's a bumpy trip.

WDFW's description of Colockum area roads:

"Extremely primitive. High-clearance, four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended. Carry water, supplies and a spare tire."

WDFW Colockum Wildlife Area - Ownership & Resource Map

I noticed several several erratics as I walked up and over ripple after ripple.

Large rocks dropped on the crests of giant ripples seem popular with local birds.

Small elk herd on West Bar (Between the arrows). View is south over western edge of ripples.
Colockum Elk Herd

View Larger Map
Use your mouse to navigate Google Map. Click "Ter" for Terrain View.

Additional Comments from the Symon's Report

Grand Coulee Illustration - Symon's Report
A few text clips from the Symon's Report related to the Ice Age Floods -

The Grand Coulee:"The coulee here is partially filled up by the broken-down hills. The cause of this break seems to have been a flood of water or ice coming in from the northeast and flowing off down through the coulee chasm. Many rounded bowlders are here found in the soil, and great rocks of large size, which could only have been transported by the agency of ice."

Victoria Rock area:... "Thousand feet above the river, there lies in an inclined position a stick of timber, barkless and white with age. It never grew there. It is a thousand feet from the top of the vertical bluffs, and could not have been put there from above. The only way in which it could have reached its present position was by being caught there when the river was a thousand feet higher than it is now, drifting in and lodging, and being left there by the receding river.

My pilot. "Old Pierre," an Indian pilot and voyageur of the old Hndson Bay Company, said that this log was a landmark in the days when this company transported their furs and merchandise up and down the river in bateaux. He says that the Indians always considered that the log was left there when the river was up at that height. This is one link in the chain of evidence that proves that at no distant date the Columbia was a stream of such magnificent proportions that the present river is a tiny rivulet compared with it. If this be the true explanation of the location of this log, it is a remarkable example of the preservation of wood for a long period of time. It may be that the log is petrified, but I had no means of getting at it to determine."

- Petrified Log above Columbia River -
The banks are nearly precipitous bluffs, from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, composed of columnar black basalt, which takes many wonderful shapes and produces many pleasing effects, rivaling the famous Giant's Causeway of Ireland in weird beauty. The columns are in every conceivable position, sometimes piled up like cordwood, in some places erect, and in others inclined; some great masses are twisted and bent, forming niches, arches, grottos, crowns, &c.

A View of Giant's Causeway: East Prospect. Engraving. Susanna Drury -1768

ABC News clip featuring Giant's Causeway

Below Sentinel Gap Symon's describes: I have endeavored to outline this ancient lake as far as practicable, and propose for it the name of Lake Lewis, after Capt. Merriweather Lewis, the leader of the exploring party which first saw any of the headwaters of the Columbia.

I'd like to encourage anyone that hasn't looked through William D. Layman's book Native River to pick up a copy and thumb through it. The pre-dam Columbia River photos from Priest Rapids to the Canadian border are great!

Some of my favorite images in the book show: Sentinel Gap, Picture Rocks Bay, Vantage Bluffs, Rock Island Rapids, Victoria Rock and Whitestone Rock (I like the skunk story).

When I read Symon's comments about Columbia River basalt exposures rivaling those at Giant's Causeway (never been there but viewed plenty of photos) ... I was thinking he might be a little off but ... Look at the photos in Layman's book of Picture Rocks Bay (now underwater) ... Between amazing columns and the incredible pictographs and petroglyphs ... I can see why he would compare it to one of the most incredible locations on earth.

Link to photo sets from Tarpiscan Canyon hikers at NWHikers.net.

Sentinel Gap and Mattawa Bar

2009-11-07T05:40:00.000-08:00

I wasn't able to attend a recent field trip to the Sentinel Gap area that Nick Zentner organized and led. It sounds like everyone had a great time and the 57 Ice Age Floods fans attending enjoyed a sunny afternoon.
I've posted a couple photos below from Nick's trip along with photos taken two weeks ago when I spent a morning hiking around Sentinel Gap and the Mattawa boulder bar (field) on my way north to hike near Frenchman Coulee.

The area I know as "Mattawa Bar" is part of a much larger bar known by two names - Wahluke Bar or Priest Rapids Bar.

With Sentinel Gap in the distance, Ellensburg IAFI Chapter President Nick Zentner describes how Ice Age Floodwaters moved through the Othello Basin. Photo by William Meyer-Ellensburg.

Westbound traffic on I-90 gets a good look at Sentinel Gap while descending to Vantage Bridge.

Ice-Rafted Erratic and Sentinel Gap
Below Sentinel Gap is a huge boulder field that I enjoy visiting every couple of years. A few ice-rafted erratic boulders sit among thousands of basalt boulders. As the floodwaters flowed through Sentinel Gap into the Pasco basin (Lake Lewis), the velocity decreased and the largest bedload material settled out.

Not sure what the story is with the big erratic ... maybe rafted to a point in or near the main Columbia channel above the gap and then tumbled through the gap during one of the later floods or rafted to this exact spot?

Google Earth view showing Sentinel Gap and the huge boulder field. The big erratic I'm standing by in previous image stands out in this shot ... light colored boulder (bottom-center).

Mattawa Erratic
The boulder field west of Mattawa is pretty cool and I feel worth inspection by those interested in Glacial Lake Missoula and the Ice Age Floods but ... the Ephrata Fan below Soap Lake is even more impressive!

Yellow star marks Sentinel Gap-Google Maps Image-
Floodwaters moving through the western channels of the Ice Age Floods region were forced to flow around the Saddle Mountains. Water moving down or over Lower Crab Creek Coulee would have been forced to flow in an easterly direction when Sentinel Gap began to restrict the flow.

"Sentinel Gap represents a water gap where erosion by the Columbia River was able to keep pace with folding, faulting and uplifting across the Saddle Mountain anticline. During Ice Age floods this opening was repeatedly reamed out, which probably widened and steepened the walls of the gap. ... If and when floodwater flow ever exceeded the capacity of Sentinel Gap, the floodwaters would automatically self-adjust, sending more water east to Othello Channels to establish equilibrium."
Bjornstad

-Saddle Mountains Recreation-
The sand found on lower slopes of the east bluff makes a great playground for ORV riders. If you want to make the short hike to the top of the east bluff, try for an early start. It gets a little noisy around here later in the day.

One of the things I enjoy about hiking around Vantage is the variety of user groups drawn to the area. You don't run into many people, but all seem to appreciate the unique landscape. In addition to the ORV riders you might get the opportunity to visit with hunters, fishermen, boaters, bird watchers, horse riders, rock climbers (that take great care of the Frenchman Coulee area ... THANKS!!!), para gliders and others.

I hiked up the sandy draw on the left, then descended through basalt chute at right. Small pieces of petrified wood and nice views. Talus below chute no fun, best bet up and down sandy draw or perhaps the road on south side.

View north from rim
Links to HUGEfloods.com trip reports for area hikes.
1. John Wayne Trail
2. Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park Part I
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park Part II
3. Lower Crab Creek Coulee

Crab Creek is known for its meandering course through the Columbia Basin. The creek makes one more big "S" (cutting through the Beverly Bar) before joining the Columbia River north of Sentinel Gap. Wildlife that enjoys the streamside habitat in lower Crab Creek Coulee can thank the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project for the year-round flow.

In 1881 (October), Lieutenant Thomas W. Symons noted:

"Crab Creek discharges no water into the Columbia-at this time of the year, at any rate."

Link to Symon's 1881: Report of an Examination of the Upper Columbia River

Symons marked Sentinel Gap as "Sentinel Bluffs" on his map. The first mention Sentinel Bluffs I'm aware of was by Alexander Ross in 1811.

"On the 20th we left the Priest Rapids, and proceeded against a strong ripply current and some small rapids, for ten miles, when we reached two lofty and conspicuous bluffs [Sentinel Bluffs], situate[d] directly opposite to each other, like the piers of a gigantic gate, between which the river flowed smoothly.

Here we staid for the night, on some rocks infested with innumerable rattlesnakes, which caused us not a little uneasiness during the night..."

Alexander Ross [1811]

Several early explorers of the Mid-Columbia region mentioned the healthy rattlesnake population found between Priest Rapids and Sentinel Gap. I didn't cross paths with any snakes as I hiked on this cool October morning, but did meet up with one later the same day while hiking the south rim of Frenchman Coulee.

I'll borrow a photo from that hike and plug him in here along with a short video (below) of the same snake as he tried to let me know that I should just move along.

Click to view short video of Frenchman Coulee rattlesnake.

-Priest Rapids Snake Report-

"...Rattlesnakes are very numerous. At times they may be heard hissing all around, so that we had to keep a sharp look-out to avoid treading on them; but the natives appeared to have no dread of them. As soon as one appears, the Indians fix its head to the ground with a small forked stick round the neck, then extracting the fang or poisonous part, they take the reptile into their hands, put it to their bosoms, play with it , and let it go again."

Alexander Ross [1811]

Washington State Department of Transportation engineers aren't the first to have issues moving traffic between the Columbia River and the steep basalt cliffs at Sentinel Gap.

Joel Palmer's Wagon Road 1858-60

Palmer found Sentinel Gap to be an obstacle when attempting to establish a Wagon Road between Priest Rapids and Canadian mines. He was forced to unload the wagons and use two canoes side by side to ferry each wagon around the steep rocky bank to Crab Creek. Boards were laid down in the canoes to support wagon wheels. Oxen were driven along a narrow Indian trail through the rocks.

Sentinel Gap Diatomite Exposure

Faint strandlines are visible on both sides of the river at Sentinel Gap.

While hiking down from the east rim, I watched load after load of apples move through the gap. The Mattawa area is known for quality vegetable and fruit production.

Mattawa area pea harvest (June).

Huge boulders have been pushed to the edge of vineyard along SR 243. Sentinel Gap in the distance.

The The Wahluke Slope became Washington's eighth appellation in 2006. Clifton Hill Vineyard has a nice group of boulders displayed along the highway.

I hope the guy living here is excited about the Ice Age Floods. Those are some nice flood-tossed boulders in the front yard and the backyard should be in a geology text book.

Good luck digging a post hole out here. I guess just putting the post in a drum and filling it with basalt will work.

October Wildflowers

Tales of early steamboats on the Columbia are pretty wild. For many years Priest Rapids created enough of an impediment to prevent the boats from reaching Sentinel Gap and beyond.

W.R. Todd operating near White Bluffs
Image from Hanford Site Historical Photo Gallery

To support passage of early steamboats on the Snake and Columbia rivers, anchors were often fixed to allow crews to line their vessels through difficult sections. As far as I know, any anchors used for this purpose in the Priest Rapids area are now underwater behind the dam. Photo above was taken on a Snake River boat trip in Hells Canyon where several of the anchors remain.

Randall V. Mill's book "Stern-Wheelers Up Columbia" describes the first successful steamboat navigation of Priest Rapids in the 1880's:

... a new boat, named appropriately the City of Ellensburgh, slid into the river at Pasco, and as soon as the trial runs showed that everything was all right with her, Captain Gray loaded her with cordwood and headed upstream. Priest Rapids broke the river badly, but Gray got out a line, rigged tackle, and by using the capstan, hauled the boat over the rapids to where her wheel could get a grip on Quiet water.

Columbia River Steamer John Gates 1884. Photographer unknown

-Priest Rapids Bar-
If you travel between the Vernita Bridge and Sentinel Gap, make sure to check out the 430 foot high Priest Rapids Bar to the east. Photo taken from SR 243 shows Road L-SW climbing to top of the massive flood bar.

Historic Beverly Railroad Bridge north of Sentinel Gap.

Click to view short video clips from top of east bluff and Mattawa boulder bar. I need to find better free music files ... sorry about that.

View Larger Map
Google Maps view of boulder field. Large erratic shown earlier in post is visible at bottom center (just above "2009" in credit) of aerial image. Use your mouse to control map navigation tools at top left.

The Heritage Center at Wanapum Dam provides an excellent introduction to the people who have called this area home for many years.

Great shot from Nick Zentner, showing Ellensburg IAFI field trip members spreading out to explore huge boulder field near Mattawa. Ellensburg IAFI chapter meetings and field trips are free and open to all. Visit chapter page at Ellensburg Ice Age Floods Institute.

The boulder field shown in image is part of the WDFW Columbia Basin Wildlife Area's Priest Rapids Unit.

Link to WDFW area Ownership Map

A WDFW Vehicle Use Permit is required to visit the big erratic.

Sentinel Gap and Surrounding Points of Interest
1. John Wayne Trail
2. Ginkgo State Park
3. West Bar
4. Frenchman Coulee
5. Potholes Coulee
6. Priest Rapids Dam
7. Frenchman Hills
8. Lower Crab Creek Coulee
9. Dry Falls
10. Ephrata Fan
11. Potholes Reservoir
12. Drumheller Channels
13. White Bluffs
14. Hanford Site

Sentinel Gap from Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies sculpture.

Babcock Bench Hike - Frenchman Coulee to Potholes Coulee

2009-10-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

On the east side of the Columbia River, 20 mile long Babcock Bench stretches from Trinidad to a point just north of the Interstate 90 bridge at Vantage, WA.

Ice Age floodwaters from Glacial Lake Missoula and other sources raced through the region, eroding tremendous amounts of basalt. The entablature of the Sentinel Bluffs flow was able to withstand the erosive forces of the water in this area, leaving a remarkable terrace 500 feet above the Columbia River up to one mile wide in places. Photo below provides a good look at the river and bench.

-Click any image to enlarge-

Aerial view (looking north) taken a few years ago shows mouth of Frenchman Coulee and part of the southern section of Babcock Bench. To start this October hike, I parked at the spot marked with yellow star and hiked north to Potholes Coulee. If you're considering this hike you might want to look at a shuttle so you don't need to backtrack. My hike was just over 24 miles up and back.

Babcock Bench
One of many pieces of evidence that helped unravel the Ice Age Floods Mystery.

J Harlen Bretz described Babcock Bench as " ... a very marked ledge of basalt, one mile wide in places."

The bench is for the most part, just a long flat shelf but far from featureless. Explore the river side or the wall to the east and you'll find all sorts of Columbia River Basalt formations that were shaped by the Ice Age Floods. Once columns like these were exposed by a flood, the following flood(s) would easily take apart the formation by plucking entire columns.

View from the east rim looking south over the tops of basalt columns and down Babcock Bench.

Other Ice Age Flood features found along the hike are various gravel bars, ice-rafted erratics, shallow potholes and mesas.

A few erratic boulders sit on Babcock Bench. The boulders were rafted to the area in icebergs during Ice Age Flood events. Today they look out of place in this land of dark brown basalt.

One of the nice scabland features found along the way. This mesa stands high above the Columbia River in the Sunland Estates area.

Fluted gravel bar shown is part of a much larger bar just below point where the river channel makes a slight turn to the east (see next image to view entire bar). This fluted portion of bar is just below and left of red circle #2 - next image.

1. - Sunland Estates
2. - Huge gravel bar (pictured above)
3. - Potholes Coulee

Google Maps terrain image shows hiking route between Frenchman Coulee and Potholes Coulee. I walked cross county going north and followed the old jeep road on return trip.

Several interesting cross canyons (running east to west) cut into the Bench, allow for a look at the basalt flows you've been walking on.

Erratic

I guess if I'm going to stand in these for scale, I should get closer. I think this erratic must be about five feet wide. View north up bench. Great description of Babcock Bench hikes and photo of this erratic in Bruce Bjornstad's book "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods". Notice the job the floods did scrubbing the bench. I bet this place is covered with bitterroot in the spring.

Erratic sits at N47.0883 - W120.0151

A couple small waterfalls are found between Cave B and the Columbia River. Sad face at left edge of basalt.

Quiet today as I walked by the Gorge Amphitheatre. Stroll by this place at certain times of the year and you could be listening to a rock band and 25,000 fans.

Google Earth view
1. Gorge Amphitheatre
2. Flood Bar
3. Center-Pivot Irrigation
4. Sunland Estates

Fall color in another east-west canyon cutting through bench.

1. West Bar (Giant Current Ripples)
2. Potholes Coulee

The big overhang in the south alcove of Potholes Coulee. Time for a quick lunch before heading back. If you haven't explored Potholes Coulee you're missing out ... This is one of the most amazing places (Top 5) in the entire Ice Age Floods region.

Here's a link to a paper on Potholes Coulee:
The Geomorphology of Potholes Coulee, Quincy Basin, Washington by Marc Fairbanks. A pleistocene sloth that was dug up on Babcock Bench is mentioned.

Interesting piece of basalt with plenty of gas bubbles (vesicles). Looks like it was really tumbled to have such a rounded shape.

The floods left some unfinished business here. The next flood or two shouldn't have much trouble bringing down this huge piece of entablature now that floodwaters can work all sides.

This is one cool pile of rocks. The photo doesn't do it justice ... Looks great when you can walk around and view from all angles.

This was a nice viewpoint. Easy access from another column just out of frame at right.

These hedgehog cactus are one of my favorites. Pretty healthy population of them on the other side of river. Their pink blooms in the spring are great!

Name for this island?

I followed a small stream down to the Columbia. A few salmon were swimming at the mouth of the creek. Some had expired and were scattered along the shore. Long trip from the Pacific ... I hope this was his destination.

The winery has done a nice job marking several trails below the facility.

Cave B Inn from the bench. I'm not sure if it will be there when you click on it but ... The day I posted this, the site had a great sunset photo of Babcock Bench at Cave B / Sage Cliffe.

Use your mouse to navigate around map.

WDFW driving directions to Potholes Coulee and Frenchman Coulee. Release below involves access to Potholes Coulee.

Scabland Gang Activity?

Columbia Basin Wildlife Area - Press Release
Quincy Lakes

Continuing gang-related vandalism is prompting early closure of an entrance gate to the Quincy Lakes unit of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area in Grant County.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will close the unit’s south entrance gate Aug. 24. The north entrance will remain open.

The south gate closure is in response to gang-related graffiti tagging, garbage dumping and destruction of public property, including toilets, concrete walkways, parking areas and signs. Closing one entrance gate is expected to reduce unpermitted through-traffic on the north-south road through the unit. That road is traditionally closed to motor vehicles Oct. 1 through Feb. 28 during hunting season. Foot traffic is allowed year-round.

The south entrance will remain closed indefinitely. Wildlife area users are encouraged to report vandalism and any other illegal activity to local law enforcement.

For more information contact WDFW’s Northcentral Region Office in Ephrata at (509) 754-4624.

Palouse Falls and Palouse River Canyon - Whitman County Side

2009-10-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

Hikers enjoy lunch break at Palouse Falls.

The Ice Age Floods from Glacial Lake Missoula and other sources carved the Palouse River canyon and created spectacular Palouse Falls.

I felt fortunate to be allowed to join a group of six other Ice Age Floods enthusiasts on a hike along the east rim of the Palouse River Canyon. The area is privately owned and has been maintained in a pristine condition by a family that obviously appreciates this unique and spectacular landscape.

Lloyd Stoess organized the hike and arranged for our entry with the landowner. I can't thank him enough for letting me tag along. The arrow-straight upper channel of the Palouse River Canyon and Winn Lake Canyon are Ice Age Floods features I've always wanted to view.

- Click any image to expand -

Our hike began in the rolling Palouse hills several miles east of the canyon. These windblown loess deposits on top of the basalt, have accumulated at depths up to 250 feet. This image was taken near the margin of a huge channel swept by the Ice Age Floods.

Wheat farming ends where the floods stripped away the soil. Mounds shown beyond the wheat are Streamlined Palouse hills that withstood the floodwaters. These large mounds are erosional remnants of Palouse hills.

Another Streamlined Palouse hill along our route. Note exposed basalt bedrock between fence and loess island.

I found the quote below in geologist Bruce Bjornstad's book "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods":

"The 'islands' of loess which make striking features on many broad scabland tracts are almost invariably elongated with the gradiant of the tract and are almost invariably scarped on the sides and upgradient end ... Many such hills or hill groups are separated by narrow scabland channels. Some stand alone in the scabland, miles from others of their kind."
J Harlen Bretz (1928)

View east - back to the wheat fields.
In early October, Findley Lake looks better on the GPS and maps than it does in person.

Findley Lake

Animal trail to seasonal water

Scabland

Palouse hills east of channel

Google Map terrain view shows one of the Streamlined Palouse hills in the area. Use mouse to navigate map.

Lloyd leads the group through several miles of scabland on our way to the Palouse River Canyon.

I shot a few short videos during the hike. Click arrow to play. Sorry I'm not very steady with the camera. The tripod was home in closet.

Amazing place when you try to visualize the floodwaters that created these features.

The floods scoured out many depressions in the channel that today serve as seasonal water sources for livestock and wildlife.

Google Earth view of the upper Palouse River Canyon. Note deep tectonic fractures in the area that were eroded and scoured out by the Ice Age Floods. The view in this image is to the north ... Arrow marks Palouse Falls ... Washtucna Coulee runs east to west at top. During some Ice Age Flood events, Washtucna Coulee was too small to carry the floodwater. When the torrent overtopped the coulee rim, it flowed south to the Snake River carving the Palouse River Canyon.

Another Google Earth image. View looking south from Washtucna Coulee. The straight 4.5 mile trench in the upper canyon sure is facinating.

View from canyon rim looking north - Up the 4.5 mile trench.

Railroad bridge in upper canyon.

Union Pacific equipment on west side of canyon. Bruce Bjornstad hiking along east rim.

Geologists Bruce Bjornstad and Gene Kiver patiently answered our questions about Columbia River Basalt and the Ice Age Floods.

Laminated deposits on the right confused me. I was behind the group when I noticed these.

View of Palouse Falls State Park viewpoint from behind falls.

Here's a shot for Tyler Bradt in case he finds this page. The flow on the day of our hike was much lower than it was when he made his 186-foot kayak drop off the falls to set a world record earlier this year. Link at bottom of this page to interview where Tyler describes his thoughts as he went over the edge.

Not the best lighting with half the falls in shadow.

View across canyon to Palouse Falls State Park viewpoint. I'm standing in line with a fracture in the basalt that's been scoured out by the floods (large cracks on both east and west rim of canyon line up).

The terraced inner-canyon is pretty amazing. The Palouse River Canyon and nearby Devil's Canyon are good locations to examine Columbia River Basalt flows.

Canyon resident

South of the falls we found several interesting basalt towers.

Hikers stand below group of columns that withstood the floodwaters.

Lone column along canyon rim.

Winn Lake Canyon is an incredible Ice Age Floods feature. A classic example of a flood carved coulee. Walking into Winn Lake Canyon was my favorite part of the hike.

Another shot of loess islands in the channel.

Hikers (bottom left) walk around the upstream end of a Streamlined Palouse hill on our way back to the wheat fields.

The glossary in Bjornstad's "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods" describes loess as:

Windblown silt and fine sand that has collected downwind of sedimentary basins along the floods route, especially in the Palouse country where it accumulated into rolling hills up to 250 feet thick. Loess began forming about the same time as the earliest Ice Age Floods (about 2 million years ago) and continues to form today.

Images below (2) show examples of windblown loess in the Columbia Basin.

Image recorded by NASA on 4 October 2009. Blue circle marks Pasco, WA.
Arrows label Moses Coulee (1), Grand Coulee (2), Telford-Crab Creek (3) and Cheney-Palouse (4) Ice Age Flood tracts that are well defined in this high altitude image.

NASA TEXT: Visibility dropped to zero in parts of eastern Washington on October 4, 2009, as a large dust storm blew through. This image of the storm was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shortly after noon (Pacific Daylight Time). According to local news, the storm brought strong winds gusting to 43 miles per hour in places that propelled the dust across the southeast corner of the state. After numerous multi-vehicle accidents, sections of Interstate 90 near the town of Moses Lake and several local roads had to be closed for several hours.
The dust storm persisted for several hours and was still visible when Aqua MODIS flew over the region at 2:00 p.m. local time. The Terra MODIS image shown here is available in multiple resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System.

Open large 7 mb NASA Image of dust storm.

Dust Devil

GPS track shows 14 mile hike route. Thanks again Lloyd!!!

At least I know where Hooper is.

These two patrol the streets of Hooper. Bruce has a story about the big one.

The fractures are pretty distinct in this Google Map terrain view. About five clicks of the "Right" arrow will shift view to the Streamlined Palouse hills shown in several images above.

One more look over the lip of Palouse Falls. I'm so impressed with Tyler Bradt's trip over the falls! Link to Tyler Bradt interview below.

Click above to play interview with Tyler Bradt that describes his world record kayak drop over Palouse Falls.

Link to images and photos of Palouse Falls in winter.

Link to images and photos of Palouse Falls near flood stage.

Link to USGS Palouse River flow at Hooper.

Ice Age Floods Features - East Rim of the Grand Coulee

2009-09-28T05:56:00.001-07:00

Photos from a September hike along the east rim of the Grand Coulee - between the "Million Dollar Mile" and Northrup Canyon. Bruce Bjornstad and I enjoyed the awesome Ice Age Floods features found along this 15 mile hike. Not sure of ownership in a few areas ... we tried to stay as close to the rim as possible throughout the hike.

Click any image to expand

Million Dollar Mile
This spendy one mile stretch of Hwy 155 in the Grand Coulee was built in 1948. The cut through the basalt became necessary as the Bureau of Reclamation filled Banks Lake.

Hiked from location marked as 7 to 4.
The Grand Coulee is considered by many to be the most remarkable legacy of the Ice Age floods. Today the massive coulee is used for off-channel storage of Columbia River water. A huge pumping station adjacent to Grand Coulee dam lifts water into the coulee. This water will either generate power as it returns to the Columbia River or flow south to irrigate crops in the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project as far south as Pasco.

1. Lake Roosevelt
2. Grand Coulee Dam
3. North Dam
4. Northrup Canyon
5. Steamboat Rock
6. Nespelem Silt deposits (white bank)
7. Million Dollar Mile
8. Dry Falls Dam
9. Dry Falls
10.Deep Lake

Geologist/Author Bruce Bjornstad hikes near an impressive basalt butte created by the Ice Age Floods.

Hiking south to north along the coulee rim.

The floods scoured out many saucer shaped potholes along the east rim. These are cool but I'm more impressed with the Deep Lake and East Lenore Channel potholes a few miles to the south. Bruce for scale.

The potholes hold water late into the season. A Google satellite image got us close to these potholes. We then followed animal trails to go from one pothole to the next.

The guy on the right - that didn't want to pose - looked like a nice buck.

Half of this pothole disappeared as the Grand Coulee widened.

Looking north up the Grand Coulee. Basalt knob on east rim shown in next image.

Photo by Bruce shows Steamboat Rock to the north. Tom hiking along rim at right.

This Bureau of Reclamation photo shows Grand Coulee Dam and the upper Grand Coulee.

1. Grand Coulee Dam
2. Lake Roosevelt
3. Pumping Station
4. Feeder Canal
5. North Dam
6. Steamboat Rock

Early photos show the Grand Coulee looked much different prior to the construction of Grand Coulee Dam. Photos from top show Steamboat Rock, BOR employees walking through wheat fields on the coulee floor and the clearing of sagebrush.

To view hundreds of photos taken during the construction of Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, visit Central Washington University's Rufus Woods Collection.

This band of palagonite formed when lava flowed into water. -Photo by Bruce ...Tom trying not to slip on the mini marbles.

Columbia River Basalt Group

Bruce standing on ring dike near the coulee rim.

Google satellite view of the same ring dike.
-Use your mouse to navigate satellite view-

East coulee wall
1. Hwy 155
2. Steamboat Rock State Park entrance
3. Northrup Canyon

Here's a shot for the three or four people out there who enjoy longitudinal groove images.

Looking north to Castle Rock (flat top).

Steamboat Rock in the upper Grand Coulee. The Nespelem Silt deposits on the coulee floor can be examined along the lake shore.

The white banks below Steamboat Rock sure are interesting. This view from the coulee rim shows the best exposure of Nespelem Silt in the coulee. These lake deposits were probably laid down in Glacial Lake Columbia between (or after) the megafloods.

Wave action along the shore of Banks Lake disturbs the silt deposits.

Here are a couple of shots taken during a visit to the Nespelem silt deposits in the spring. The petrified doughnuts found on the beach make me hungry.

Bruce views a section of the Nespelem silt deposits. The bank is unstable in places ... Use caution if you explore this area ... Not a good place to visit with children!!!

In some sections of the Nespelem silt deposits you can follow the alligator skin pattern into the bank. Ice age mud cracks!

Back to the coulee rim hike ... Another shot of the Nespelem silt deposits. The white banks shown in previous images are along the far shoreline in this photo. Note the giant current ripples.

Bruce views the flood-swept east rim of the Grand Coulee.

Map created by Bruce shows ice lobe that diverted Columbia River and floodwaters from Glacial Lake Missoula down the Grand Coulee.

At times the ice lobe blocked the Columbia River creating Glacial Lake Columbia. This photo from another trip (a few miles NE of Northrup Canyon) shows Glacial Lake Columbia shorelines cut into the hills 1,000 feet above the surface of Lake Roosevelt.

Haystack Rocks (large pieces of basalt) scattered above the west rim of the Grand Coulee were left behind when the ice sheet melted.

Here's a shot of a huge haystack rock west of the Grand Coulee (wife Teresa left of rock). Yeager Rock sits next to Hwy 172 east of Mansfield.

View Larger Map
Tough place to farm! That's Yeager rock upper left. Use mouse to view more debis left by the ice sheet.

One of the erratic boulders stranded on the east rim of the Grand Coulee. Not as many granite boulders on the east rim compared to what you find on top of Steamboat Rock.

Photo from another hike shows one of the many granite boulders stranded on top of Steamboat Rock. View down the Grand Coulee.

Another of the large erratics on top of Steamboat Rock. View shows mouth of Northrup Canyon (1) and Whitney Canyon (2) along east rim.

Northrup Canyon from Steamboat Rock. Plenty of history in this canyon.

Northrup Canyon Structures.

It was getting pretty late when Bruce and I reached Northrup Canyon. Great day with perfect weather.

Open link to view map of Coulee Corridor

View Larger Map

National Geologic Trail Press Conference

2009-05-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

The Ice Age Floods Institute held a press conference today regarding legislation that was passed by Congress on March 25, 2009, authorizing the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. The legislation is the culmination of a multi-year effort. The primary sponsors of the legislation are U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell and U.S. Congressman Doc Hastings.

Link to Tri-City Herald coverage: Press Conference

Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Press Conference speakers Gary Kleinknecht (Ice Age Floods Institute President), U.S. Congressman Doc Hastings and U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell.

Congressman Hastings and Senator Cantwell hold small ice-rafted erratics that were presented by the Ice Age Floods Institute.

Senator Maria Cantwell

“Since 2001, I have been working with communities in Central and Eastern Washington, the National Park Service, and community stakeholders to create an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail through portions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana,” said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell. “Visitors to the trail will not only provide an important economic boost to Central and Eastern Washington communities, but they will learn about an amazing, and often overlooked, part of our region’s history.”

Check out the huge erratic boulder above - left side of image. This boulder was ice-rafted to the Badger Mountain area during the Ice Age Floods. Material on the kiosk describes that the erratic was moved to this point during construction of homes a short distance away.

Congressman Doc Hastings

“I was proud to sponsor the legislation establishing the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail in the House of Representatives,” said U.S. Congressman Doc Hastings. “It is fitting that the first-ever National Geologic Trail should highlight the unique and dramatic landscape of the inland Northwest, which was shaped by these Ice Age floods. This trail will serve to inform local residents about our unique geologic history, attract and support tourism to the region, and do so by interpreting sites on existing public lands rather than adding new regulations to private landowners or through the costly acquisition of new federal lands.”

Lake Lewis Maximum Elevation 1,250 feet.

The press conference was held in Trailhead Park, (541 Queensgate Dr., Richland) on the slopes of Badger Mountain. As you hike the trail to the top of Badger Mountain, you'll pass this marker placed at the Ice Age Floods high-water line.

View Larger Map

Badger Mountain (lower left) and Queensgate Drive in Richland. Use Google's navigation tools to explore the area.

Bruce Bjornstad created this illustration to show approximate water level during major Ice Age Flood events. Click to enlarge and notice the summit of Badger Mountain became an island surrounded by temporary Lake Lewis.

Keith Dunbar is the National Park Service Chief of Planning for the Pacific West Region.

Kris Watkins, CEO for the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau describes tourism opportunities for communities along the trail.

Geologist/Author Bruce Bjornstad
I'm not sure what Bruce is describing here but he's probably explaining a flood feature or giving directions to a hike in the Channeled Scablands.

Bruce's book "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods" is available at the Ice Age Floods Institute store.

Dale Middleton
It made my day to see Dale at the press conference. Dale has worked hard for many years to make sure that the story of the Ice Age Floods is told.

George Last
George deserves a ton of credit for the Ice Age Floods kiosk and high-water marker along the Badger Mountain trail. George serves as President of the Lake Lewis chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute.

Terry Hurd is President of the Columbia Gorge chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute. I'll always appreciate Terry's help and advice when Nick Zentner, Karl Lillquist and I were starting the IAFI chapter in Ellensburg.

Ice-rafted erratic along bike path to Badger Mountain.

Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail

The Trail will become part of the network of existing public highways through Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, enabling the public to view, experience, and learn about the features and story of the Ice Age floods through the collaborative efforts of public and private entities.

The Ice Age Floods were the largest documented flood events known to have occurred on Earth. The discharge of water from Glacial Lake Missoula as the ice dam failed equaled ten times the flow of all of the rivers on Earth. The Glacial Lake Missoula contained over 500 cubic miles of water when the ice dam failed.

Learn more about the trail at the Ice Age Floods Institute site: IAFI Trail Page

Umatilla Rock - Dry Falls

2009-05-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

View north from top of Umatilla Rock
-Dry Falls Lake upper left-
Dry falls is one of the most well known features created by the Ice Age Floods. This great cataract group is primarily made up of Dry Falls, Monument and Deep Lake coulees. The two best known lakes immediately below the precipice are Dry Falls Lake (Bretz refers to this lake as "Falls Lake" in his papers) and Deep Lake.

-Umatilla Rock-

The State describes Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park as a 4,027-acre camping park with 73,640 feet of freshwater shoreline at the foot of Dry Falls. Dry Falls is one of the great geological wonders of North America. Carved by Ice Age floods that long ago disappeared, the former waterfall is now a stark cliff, 400 feet high and 3.5 miles wide. In its heyday, the waterfall was four times the size of Niagara Falls. Today it overlooks a desert oasis filled with lakes and abundant wildlife.

Umatilla Rock is the long slender island in the big horseshoe shaped cataract system. Dry Falls Coulee on left, Monument Coulee on Right. Deep Lake Coulee joins from the far right. The State Park's northern boundary is confusing. The ranger in the visitor center has tearoff maps available.

I parked at what looked to be a new turnout or small parking area along the west side of Umatilla Rock and found a faint path through the talus. Near the top I had to use both hands to access a ledge or two before reaching the top. I don't think this is an official part of the Umatilla Rock trail. Hazards encountered by those hiking in the park seem to be listed on all trailhead signs.

The top of Umatilla Rock is pretty cool. The Ice Age Floods really swept this thing off flat.

Looking off the east side of Umatilla Rock, one views huge basalt blocks scattered over the western portion of Monument Coulee.

This basalt shelf in Monument Coulee is pretty cool. It sits just downstream from a large depositional feature and has been drilled from above by a kolk (underwater tornado/whirlpool) during an Ice Age Flood event. The feature left by the kolk is known as a pothole.

-Pothole-

My favorite wildflower.
Bitterroot blooms (Lewisia rediviva).

According to the Wikipedia page: "The Lemhi Shoshone believed the small red core found in the upper taproot had special powers, notably being able to stop a bear attack."

The hike into Monument Coulee along the east side of Umatilla Rock is nice when the wildflowers are blooming. The huge basalt blocks shown in earlier photos are pretty impressive when viewed from the coulee floor.

Monument Coulee Trip Report - Seattle PI

An interesting spire stands at the south end of Umatilla Rock.

The same basalt blocks that were mentioned above. Several similar clusters are found nearby.

North end of Umatilla Rock. Fisherman on Dry Falls Lake at right.

Umatilla Rock from the brink of the falls.

Deep Lake
This is one of the most amazing areas in the Channeled Scablands. Every time I visit the Deep Lake area I find more incredible Ice Age Flood features.

Deep Lake Trip Report - Seattle PI

In his 1932 publication "The Grand Coulee", J Harlen Bretz included images and description of the "pothole-riddled ledges south of Deep Lake". Bretz noted that some of the holes are 40-50 feet deep.

The Ice Age Floods ripped out and removed tremendous amounts of basalt from the Upper and Lower Grand Coulee. There are a few sheltered areas where the floods deposited material ... Small gravel bar on opposite side of coulee. Check out all those potholes!!!

A few of the Deep Lake potholes with a blue pickup truck for scale.

If you visit the Washington State Park's Centennial Page you can open a copy of the Interpretive Master Plan
for the Ice Age Floods in Washington State Parks

The document describes this group of potholes:

"Another spectacular feature is a tight cluster of the deep potholes beyond Sun Lakes just west of Deep Lake. These potholes lie along the valley bottom and require only a 5-10 minute walk from the road."

CAUTION: I'd like to add that a fall into one of these potholes could be fatal!!!

This high altitude image from Google shows the same group of potholes. Click the minus symbol to view surrounding terrain.

I actually measured one of the Deep Lake potholes last year. This illustration is pretty close to scale. I'm 5'10, the pothole is 48' deep and 76' across.

One of the many bedload carried erratics scattered through the park.

This pothole just above the brink of the falls has a nice shape but the water quality doesn't look good. Nasty looking layer of algae.

Red Alkali Lake and Green Lake in upper Monument Coulee.

I almost stepped on the female killdeer tending these eggs.

Interesting pothole gouged into a weak section of the basalt.

Google aerial view of the same pothole. Zoom out or pan side to side to view location of pothole shown in the previous image.

The huge basalt knobs pictured above are between Monument and Deep Lake coulees. The cover of one of my favorite books about the Ice Age Floods shows the same feature viewed from a different angel. David Alt's Glacial Lake Missoula and it's Humongous Floods is available at the IAFI Store.

The Dry Falls area is one of the best locations to view Longitudinal Grooves carved by the floods. They sure stand out this time of year when the grooves are filled with blooming wildflowers.

The State Park's Visitor Center at Dry Falls houses excellent displays that describe the creation of the Lower Grand Coulee. Videos that explain Lake Missoula and the Ice Age Floods are also shown.

I'd be willing to provide a couple gallons of basalt brown paint to the State Parks if they ever decide to paint the south wall of this ugly structure. You can see the big white box for miles.

On previous visits to the Dry Falls overlook, I failed to notice this small flood tumbled erratic placed on one of the stone walls.

The Dry Falls overlook has been a popular spot for years. Photo above from the Rufus Woods Collection (Housed at Central Washington University), shows a woman photographing Dry Falls in 1940 (Umatilla Rock in the distance).

Another image from the Rufus Woods collection. The caption posted for this 1946 shot states: "F.A. Banks, Supervising Engineer at Grand Coulee Dam explains features to Secretary of Interior Krug and party at Dry Falls near Coulee City, Wash."

Dry Falls viewed from the visitor center along SR17.

This set of contour lines is pretty good evidence that the Ice Age Floods were a powerful force.

Sunday, June 7, 2009
FIELD TRIP: Dry Falls and the Lower Grand Coulee (led by Karl Lillquist, Coulee City native!)
8:00 am - 6:00 pm (carpool from Hebeler Hall parking lot)
More information soon on the Ellensburg Chapter page.

View Larger Map

The Dalles and "She Who Watches"

2009-04-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

"She Who Watches"
I finally made it down to see the famous "She Who Watches" (Tsagaglalal) in the Columbia Gorge. Indians that lived in this area for hundreds perhaps thousands of years scratched and painted scenes into and on the basalt cliffs that were shaped by the Columbia River and Ice Age Floods.

Wikipedia Page: Tsagaglalal

The legend of Tsagaglalal

I'm slower than most when driving from Pasco to The Dalles (Too much to see). I lose time in the Wallula Gap area and all the way down the Gorge. The stretch of scabland above John Day Dam (N. side) is facinating. Saturday morning Mt. Hood views were nice along the Washington side. This shot was taken near Columbia Hills State Park.

Horsethief Butte
Columbia Hills State Park includes Horsethief Lake, Horsethief Butte and Dalles Mountain Ranch.

The State Parks Dept. describes history of park:

The basalt rock resulted from a series of lava flows which emerged from cracks in the earth's crust and blanketed the entire eastern Washington/Oregon region.
The Butte and the surrounding Columbia River channel were carved out of basalt rock by floods following the last ice age.

For centuries, the park was the site of a Native American village. The Lewis and Clark expedition camped at the village and described its wooden houses in one of their journals. The village was flooded by the waters of The Dalles Dam.

Oral history states that the park received its former name -- Horsethief Lake State Park -- from workers in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who developed the site. The workers thought the terrain was similar to that of horsethief hideouts in popular 1950s Hollywood westerns. The abundance of horses kept on the premises by local Indians apparently gave the workers their inspiration.

The commission combined the park with Dalles Mountain Ranch and renamed the area Columbia Hills State Park in 2003.

Near The Dalles you'll find plenty of Ice Age Flood features on both sides of the river.

Balsamroot was just starting to bloom in some of the warmer spots along the river.

Both petroglyphs (scratched into the rock) and pictographs (painted on) are viewed along the path to "She Who Watches".
This photo shows colors often used in this area by early artists. Black from charcoal, white from ash (Mazama Ash according to guide) and red from iron oxide. Red figure on left looks like a salmon.

Even if you don't get signed up for the guided tour to "She Who Watches", you can view petroglyphs like these that were removed by the Corps of Engineers during the construction of The Dalles Dam. They've been place along the park road.

Tsagaglalal photographs well but is much more impressive in person.

Number for reservation to join the short hike to Tsagaglalal.

Celilo Falls
Prime fishing locations at Celilo Falls and other nearby rapids drew Native Americans to this area for thousands of years. When The Dalles Dam was completed in 1957, the historic fishing sites were inundated.

Short YouTube video on the history of Celilo Falls 8 miles east of The Dalles. Video posted by kunik1962.

In November 2008 the Corps of Engineers released sonar images of Celilo Falls.

Story about the falls.

Recent sonar study shows Celilo Falls is still entact.

One of the State Park's interpretive panels includes a map of the Ice Age Floods region and the following text:

Created By Floods

Millions of years ago, floods of lava poured over this landscape. Those layers of lava, now hardened into rock called basalt, can be seen in the cliffs surrounding you. About 15,00 years ago, huge catastrophic floods of water and ice rushed across the landscape.
These Ice Age Floods - up to 1,000 feet deep as they rushed through this valley - cut deeply into the basalt, leaving exposed cliffs and rock features still visible today.

Countless Ice Age Flood features can be found on both sides of the river near The Dalles.

Mural in The Dalles shows Lewis and Clark on one of the local flood sculpted buttes on their way to the Pacific in 1805.

Learn more about this site at Lyn Topinka's Rock Fort page.

Pulpit Rock
This mural on the side of the Salvation Army building (next to a used car lot) is a beauty. It shows one of the areas basalt spires that was used between 1838 and 1848, by Methodist Mission members as a preaching location. The Dalles Mural Society page tells the story of Pulpit Rock and other scenes depicted in area murals. Mural Page

1919 image showing Pulpit Rock from Wikipedia.
Photograph in Public Domain.

The folks in The Dalles have taken good care of Pulpit Rock over the years.

The road to the Rowena Crest viewpoint is pretty cool. Lyn Topinka has posted images of this area at: Rowena Crest

When parked at the Rowena Crest viewpoint, check out one of the nearby trails. On this trip I took the short hike out across the green plateau ... Walking out here it feels like you should be carrying a set of clubs. The Ice Age Flood features in the area are impressive. Learn more about the Tom McCall Preserve.

Each time I visit The Dalles, I try to spend at least a couple hours in the Columbia Gorge Discover Center. This place is AMAZING! In addition to an Ice Age/Ice Age Floods display, I always enjoy the Lewis and Clark, Oregon Trail and Wasco County exhibits along with materials that tell the story of the Native Americans that live in the area.

The life-size 13-foot Columbian mammoth model is pretty cool but my favorite exhibit is Stev Ominski's painting that shows a group of mammoths running from one of the Ice Age Floods that raced down the Columbia Gorge. Click to open link that shows an interesting shot of Stev and his painting The Rowena Incident.

Red bubble marks Rowena Crest, blue bubble marks Horsethief Butte.

Lower Crab Creek Coulee - Buttes, Mesas and tsmee-toos?

2009-03-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

This early March hike took me by two clusters of buttes and mesas in the Lower Crab Creek Coulee.

Several of these mesas may have been used as defensive positions by early Columbia Plateau residents. Mesas occupied by Native Americans were known as tsmee-toos by the Sinkiuse. The Lower Crab Creek Coulee features shown were shaped by Ice Age Floodwaters and the Columbia River.

Columbia Basin Wildlife Area
Lower Crab Creek Unit

Click any image to enlarge

In 1973 amateur archaeologist Nat Washington released a report titled "Mesa Top Cliff Dwellers of Eastern Washington". Washington found evidence that Native Americans occupied the tops of at least 55 mesas in the Columbia Basin at some period. The sheer basalt walls are thought to have provided protection during attacts.
Ladders may have been used to gain access to the mesa top and would have been pulled up once the group was in position.

Native Americans living in the Columbia Basin have used the lower Crab Creek drainage as a travel route for thousands of years.

The Saddle Mountains rise sharply and form the coulee's south rim.

Huge basalt boulders scattered below the coulee's north rim.

View from north rim, looking east up the massive coulee.

View from north rim of coulee.

Wahatis Peak in the distance.

This butte is surrounded by red-winged blackbird habitat. March is a great time to view birds in Lower Crab Creek Coulee.

Aerial view of organic fields on the Smyrna Bench. Arrows mark Lower Crab Creek Coulee. The mesas and buttes shown above are marked by the last two arrows.

If you slow down to study any one image in this post ... I hope it's this one.

Geologist/Author Bruce Bjornstad created this map showing the path of the Columbia River when the Okanogan Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet was in place. Bruce has marked Lower Crab Creek Coulee with the number 38. It was a combination of the Ice Age Floods and this Columbia River diversion that shaped Lower Crab Creek Coulee.

If you have a few minutes --- Click the map below to enlarge and follow the Columbia River's course shown on Bruce's map in Google's terrain view. The old river channel is easy to trace through the Drumheller Channels, Moses Lake area (Big Bend) and up through Rocky Ford to the Lower Grand Coulee.

This shot looking NE to the upper coulee, was taken several years ago from the Smyrna Bench.

It sure is neat to see the work done by the floods scrubbing away basalt. Where remnants of the upper basalt flow remain in the form of buttes and mesas, it's interesting to note well-defined moats sometimes present on the upstream side.

Interesting balanced rock in the distance.

Should have ended up with a better shot of the rock. Saw no hope of getting on top of the rock before my 20 second camera delay expired.

One of two sharp summit basalt formations in the area.

Local deer seem nervous.

Red-tailed hawk soars above the north coulee wall.

Looking SW into the west end of the huge coulee. Try to imagine the dust stirred up in 1906 when 5,000 wild horses were rounded up between the Saddle Mountains and Ephrata. Newspaper reporters from as far away as the Boston Herald were sent to cover the event known as the Last Grand Roundup.

The Lower Crab Creek area was important to early ranchers that raised cattle and sheep. This display of equipment used by these men is located in the Wanapum Heritage Center a few miles up the Columbia River from the mouth of Crab Creek Coulee.
Wanapum Heritage Center

Lower Crab Creek Coulee could one day be used to store irrigation water. USGS image above (note Columbia River at left).

The Bureau of Reclamation and Washington State Department of Ecology are exploring several coulees created by the Ice Age Floods for additional off-channel storage of Columbia River water. Lower Crab Creek Coulee is high on their list with a potential active storage capacity of 2,300,000 acre-feet. Columbia River Basin Storage Options

Link to: Columbia River Mainstem Storage Options, Washington Off-Channel Storage Assessment Pre-Appraisal Report (Large File 7.4 MB pdf)

With transmission lines already in place and a reliable wind on the Saddle Mountain crest, the ridge looks like a windfarm waiting to happen.

This photo was taken pretty close to the point that I turned to the north and climbed up on Dry Island.

Marsh area near the Clementine Lake trailhead.

Plenty of room to roam on the refuge. This hike was just over 20 miles.

The next two images are from the Drumheller Channels north of Othello.

Deadman's Bluff
Over the years, buttes and mesas created by the Ice Age Floods were put to other uses. This large mesa along the Morgan Lake road in the Drumheller Channels has a gentle slope on the south end (this view from north).

The mesa was once used by local cattlemen as a sort of a "Corral in the sky" for their herd. The cattle were driven up the south side and one or two men were all that was needed to keep them on top. One April night in 1880, 15-year-old Edward O'Rourke was assigned the job of keeping the herd on the mesa. At some point during the night, Edward and his mule tumbled off the east side to their deaths. A rock-pile marker visible from the road marks the point of impact.

The mesa is known today as Deadman's Bluff and the nearby lake used to clean Edward up before he was returned to his parents is Deadman Lake. (Lake located just SW of the Morgan Lake - McManamon intersection)

Former Land Manager of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge Ron Anglin has written an excellent book on central Washington history that includes descriptions of the Last Grand Roundup, tsmee-toos, and O'Rourke's tumble off the mesa. Forgotten Trails

Washington found that one of the characteristics of mesas used as defensive positions was a reliable nearby source of water. I need to catch up with Washington's report to see if this Drumheller Channel mesa along Crab Creek made the list of 55.

Click to open WDFW's: Lower Crab Creek Unit - Detailed Land Ownership & Resource Map

Eagle perched above Columbia River near Wanapum Dam.

View Larger Map
Note tiny Crab Creek wandering through the massive Lower Crab Creek Coulee. Use your mouse to navigate map.

Links to Lower Crab Creek trip reports posted by others:

Crab Creek Wildlife Area Hike

Seattle P-I Hike of the Week

Ice-Rafted Erratics in Jackknife Canyon

2009-03-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

This huge granite boulder was floated to this location aboard an iceberg during one of the Ice Age Flood events that swept over eastern Washington near the end of the most recent Ice Age.

In late February I visited two of these large erratics above Jackknife Creek after hiking north from the Rocky Coulee parking area near the Gingko Petrified Forest State Park visitor center. Later in the year it may be easier to access the Jackknife Creek area via the green dot road system for those that don't mind a bumpy ride using high clearance vehicles, motorcycles or perhaps a rental car.

After crossing the State Park, I entered the Whiskey Dick Unit of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area. This is wide open country with both erosional and depositional Ice Age Floods features to explore. If you head out here to visit the big erratics make sure to pack a lunch. The hike ended up covering 20.7 miles.

The largest of the Jackknife Creek erratics is visible from Frenchman Coulee. When visiting Frenchman Coulee, take a few minutes to explore the west side of the river with your binoculars. The floods really did a job on the basalt over there.

From Bruce Bjornstad's book:
On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods
"Of special interest is a high, sculpted-out area in the steep wall of basalt visible on the opposite side of the Columbia River from Frenchman Coulee. Like a giant fire hose, a forceful jet of floodwater hit this rock wall head on after cascading through Frenchman Coulee."

As soon as you start hiking across the State Park land you'll see plenty of ice-rafted erratics scattered over the landscape. This part of the state has been covered by dark brown Columbia River Basalt so granitic boulders are often visible from great distances.

The flood sculpted terrain along with the material deposited by the floods are enough to get me out here. Viewing the petrified wood is a bonus.

Hard to select just a couple petrified wood shots to post. I took quite a few during the hike.

So much petrified wood out here that the guys setting this benchmark in 1957 pressed some into the concrete.

Petrified Log

I sure enjoyed the view as I walked north high above the Columbia River. Locations marked on photo are: 1. Sunland, 2. Babcock Bench, 3. Frenchman Coulee, 4. Interstate 90. Click any of the photos to enlarge.

Degree Confluence
A destination for some is out there on the surface of the Columbia River: 47°N 120°W

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to cross the Hole In The Wall drainage rather than walk around the west end. It sure ate up the time and I didn't find much of interest down there other than a small cave.

As I was trying to work my way down to the river I saw this guy to my right. He was looking down the river and didn't realize that I was behind him. As soon as my camera clicked he gave me this profile view and then took off.

Wish I could have spent more time at:
N 47°00.411'
W 120°00.482'
Some nice basalt exposures in all directions.

Walking on top of the columns.

Moss covered petrified log.

Leaving the hike for a minute here. Wanted to mention that I visited the Yakima Museum's new Miocene Forest exhibit a couple weeks ago. The museum page notes that geologist Nick Zentner (Ellensburg IAFI chapter President) was one of the experts consulted in the development of the exhibit. The display is beautiful and helps tell the story of the forest that existed here 15 million years ago.

The museum's Time Tunnel exhibit provides information relating to the Columbia River Basalt Group, the Ice Age Floods and some of the animals that once inhabited the area.

Antlers near Cayuse Creek
Many deer (like the one that wore these) use the Whiskey Dick Unit but the animal the area is known for is the Rocky Mountain elk.

COLOCKUM ELK HERD
This area is important winter and early spring habitat to some of the 4,500 animals that make up the Colockum Elk Herd. The link opens a 58 page document that describes the herd including a description of the strategy used by WDFW to manage their population on the West Bar (Giant current ripples).

The WDFW herd history states that the main Colockum herd developed from 45 Montana Rocky Mountain elk released near Boylston and driven north at Vantage in 1915 (Pautzke, 1939). Zooarchaeological data from the Columbia Basin suggest elk were present and utilized by early inhabitants (McCorquodale 1985, Dixon et al. 1996). By the late-1800s elk may have been extirpated from the Region (McCorquodale 1985). The current Colockum elk population
developed from the reintroduction of Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) from
Yellowstone National Park in 1913 and 1915, which significantly contributed to any remnant animals in the area (Bryant and Maser 1982).

Frenchman Coulee

These small current ripple marks in the sand caught my eye along the Columbia River (note footprints for scale). They reminded me of ripple marks on a much larger scale created a few miles to the north by the Ice Age Floods.

This photo of the giant current ripples on West Bar was taken just before sunset in June. Some of the West Bar ripples are 24 feet in height and 360 feet apart. Geologist believe the water that created these ripples was 650 feet deep!

I like seeing the suitcase size erratics but I was anxious to see the large one I'd spotted from Frenchman Coulee.

Cluster of small erratics, Frenchman Coulee in the distance.

The smaller of the two large erratics above Jackknife Creek. Note: Columbia River in the distance.

Another view of the erratic shown in the previous photo. Arrow identifies the large erratic I viewed from Frenchman Coulee.

Hard to believe this 9' tall rock floated into Kittitas County.

Could be the top of a 30 footer?

Many sections of the green dot roads near the river are cut into flood deposits.

Area Roads Closed Until May 1st

A closure to motorized vehicle access on the Whiskey Dick and a portion of the Quilomene wildlife areas in Kittitas County is in effect from February 1 through April 30 during 2008 and 2009 to protect wintering elk. The area is north of the Vantage Highway, south of Quilomene Ridge Road, east of the Wild Horse Wind Farm, and west of the Columbia River. The effectiveness of the closure will be evaluated at the end of that period to determine whether it should become permanent.

Anyone know what kind of bird this is?
Tom Email

On my way back to the car I spent some time looking at Sentinel Gap. This restriction probably had a lot to do with the location of many erratics in the Ginkgo area.

The movie below is VERY low quality but it does show views of the large erratics above Jackknife Creek:

Links to December 2008 hikes at Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park:
Ginkgo State Park Part I
Ginkgo State Park Part II

John Wayne Trail - Erratics and Bars

2009-02-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

Though not one of my favorite hikes, there are several interesting Ice Age Flood features along the John Wayne Trail south of Vantage, WA.

The U.S. Army controls land on both sides of the trail and DOES NOT allow off trail use. Saturday's hike was 7.4 miles out with a return trip retracing the same stretch of railbed.

This section of trail did rate as a Seattle P.I. Hike of the week: John Wayne Trail

The trail description on the Wikipedia site includes mention of the Ice Age Floods:

"However the trail provides access to the unique geological erosion features of the Channeled Scablands regions of Washington state, and several stretches have been recognized as providing access to this area created by the cataclysmic Missoula Floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistocene epoch."

Open Wikipedia Trail Description page.

Just a short walk from the trailhead to one of the many erratic boulders found along the trail. These large pieces of granite were rafted into the area in icebergs during Ice Age Flood events. Visit nearby Ginkgo State Park to learn more about this area known to geologists as the "Iceberg Graveyard".

Where the Antelope May Soon Play

Here's a clip from a story about plans to relocate antelope to the area:

The most pronghorn-friendly area is from Vantage to the Army’s sprawling Yakima Training Center in part because of its shrub steppe vegetation, Martorello said.

“It’s the best contiguous piece of habitat, and with the rolling hills, it’s perfect for them,” he said.

Antelope Story

When traveling SR243, you may have noticed a large gravel bar a few hundred yards south of Wanapum Dam. This view shows bar from west end. Photo doesn't do it justice - Maybe clicking to enlarge image will help?

This big fella has been shoved around by the Army. The flood sculpted mesa in the distance is an interesting feature.

Flood tumbled rocks from distant places are scattered over the area.

Another gravel bar image that might be more impressive if you click to enlarge. A large portion of this one appears to have been removed during construction of the railroad.

This erratic was uncovered during the excavation of the bar shown above.

This erratic has slid downslope and ended up on the old railbed. The grade doesn't seem steep when walking but the 18 mile 2.2% grade was a tough pull for locomotives. The first link below opens a story about "Helper Engines" that were added to trains making the climb to the summit at Boylston. The second link opens a video that might be interesting to those familiar with the area. Some of the scenes are 1953 footage of this stretch of the Milwaukee Road.

Helper Engines

Railroad Video

An amazing Ice Age Floods feature along the trail is this erratic cluster at 1,248' elevation. Impressive to see these rocks stranded 700' above and several miles from the Columbia River.

I noticed this USGS benchmark on the other side of the trail when standing near the cluster pictured above. Arrow points to granite stone used to support post.

1,248' Benchmark appears on USGS map of the area.

Another shot of the 1,248' cluster.

Large erratic uncovered in railroad cut.

I stopped several times when small colorful rocks caught my eye.

Eagle Scout Neil Cantral organized the development and installation of several interpretive displays along the trail. The panel shown describes Native Americans that have used this stretch of the Columbia River for thousands of years. Other panels tell the story of early miners and pioneers. My personal favorite is one placed near the abandoned town of Doris titled "Basalt Flows and Catastrophic Floods".

After the John Wayne Trail hike, I had time for a couple more short trips in the Vantage area. Later in the day I ended up in Frenchman Coulee looking across the Columbia River wondering ... Just how big is that erratic over there? Maybe I'll find out next Saturday.

Erratic pictured sits in the Whiskey Dick unit of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area.

More information about the John Wayne Trail from the Washington State Park's page:

John Wayne Pioneer Trail

The John Wayne Pioneer Trail follows the former roadbed of the Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Pacific Railroad two-thirds of the way across Washington, from the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains to the border with Idaho. The 100-mile portion from Cedar Falls (near North Bend) to the Columbia River near Vantage is managed as Iron Horse State Park. It is open to hikers, bikers, equestrians and horse-drawn wagons in summer, and to snowmobiles, dog sleds and cross-country skiers in winter.

Blue bubble marks trailhead. John Wayne Trail shown with RR track symbol (passes though the RR town of Doris that no longer exists).

Rapids, Canyons and Bars

2009-02-18T20:09:00.001-08:00

A mid-February trip into the the Cheney-Palouse scabland tract led me to three of Bruce Bjornstad's Ice Age Floods geocache sites.

Click links to open Bruce's geocache pages.

Staircase Rapids

Devil's Canyon

Lake Sacajawea Flood Bar

Click any image to enlarge.

Staircase Rapids are a series of basalt cataracts and ledges between Rattlesnake Flat and Washtucna Coulee. Several excellent examples of streamlined Palouse hills are nearby. Note the flood scarped loess hills in the distance.

The streamlined hills of loess are remnants of the loess blanket that covered the entire area prior to the Ice Age Floods.

Huge rock basin cut by floodwaters below the rapids.

In his book "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods", geologist Bruce Bjornstad quotes J Harlen Bretz:

There is a great extinct rapids extending over three prominent basalt ledges. The water of this cascade (Staircase Rapids) fell 300 feet in three miles."

Bretz (1928)

Rattlesnake Flat is pretty much featurless. The interesting scabland formations are just a short walk south of the trailhead.

This scabland resident didn't make it through the winter.

Trailhead parking on Rattlesnake Flat.

The face of the Palouse hills at left were eroded by the floods. Note the streamlined palouse hill on the right.

The scabland tract is bordered on both sides by rolling hills of Palouse loess.

I was about ready to give up! My GPS told me I was in the right place but I saw no sign of a geocache container. I knew that a cache placed by Bruce would be decent size as he always fills them with interesting pictures and descriptions of Ice Age Floods features in the immediate area. Right after I snapped this photo I noticed a sliver of white plastic in the nearby talus.

I didn't leave it like this. I covered it up just like the last visitor ... I only left a small piece in view. Don't give up!

Photo by Bruce Bjornstad
After visiting Staircase Rapids, I drove south to Washtucna Coulee, then down the coulee to the town of Kahlotus. I wanted to visit Bruce's geocache in Devil's Canyon. This canyon was cut when floodwaters overtopped the south rim of Washtucna Coulee and flowed south to the Snake River. This is very similar to the Palouse River capture a few miles east.

Unfortunatly for the railroad builders, the Ice Age Floods failed to cut the south rim of Washtucna Coulee all the way to the coulee floor. They were forced to bore a 2,000'+ tunnel through the basalt to run trains between Washtucna Coulee and Devil's Canyon. This flood cut canyon is impressive! Five miles long and dropping 400 feet from Washtucna Coulee to the Snake River in a straight line.

It's a long haul to the light at the end of this abandoned railroad tunnel. Once through the tunnel it was just a short hike and scramble up a slope to the second Bjornstad geocache of the day.

Upper Devil's Canyon. (View from road)

Off to geocache #3 near the Lake Sacajawea Flood Bar

This aerial photo by Bruce Bjornstad shows one of largest depositional features left by the Ice Age Floods. The massive Lake Sacajawea Bar is divided into two parts, a pendant bar and an eddy bar. For those that appreciate huge gravel bars ... You've got to see it to believe it ... This thing is 400 feet tall.

Another image by Bruce Bjornstad of the Lake Sacajawea Bar.

The light-colored band shown in photo is exposed at several locations along the bar. This material would have settled out during slackwater conditions.

Image by Bjornstad. This photo and caption below are part of a document Bruce has posted on the Ice Age Floods Institute site: Lake Sacajawea Flood Bar

Near the top of the eddy bar is a sequence of slackwater flood rhythmites containing the Mount St. Helens “S”ash layer, dated at 15,000 calendar years B.P. Flow-direction indicators (arrow) again suggest these deposits were laid down as the last Ice-Age floods swirled around in a large eddy at this location.

Some of the material plastered into the flood bar is colorful.

The third and final geocache of the day is located just west of the huge bar along the Snake River.

Bruce is always good about keeping the containers stocked with Ice Age Floods Institute brochures.

Blue bubbles on map below mark geocache sites. Click bubbles for more info and images.

The map is active. Use controls to move around and zoom. The Streamlined Palouse Hills are interesting if you zoom in on the Staircase Rapids area in the terrain view.

Here's another shot at the same links I posted above. Click links to learn more about each of these Ice Age Floods features.

Click links to open Bruce's geocache pages.

Staircase Rapids

Devil's Canyon

Lake Sacajawea Flood Bar

Palouse Falls - The Meltdown

2009-01-24T18:54:00.000-08:00

On December 23rd, I visited Palouse Falls and posted photos of the frozen falls on this blog. When temperatures warmed in early January, I made another trip out to the falls - What a difference 50 degrees can make!

I'll add a few images here, but check out Palouse Falls in Winter Part II at HUGEfloods.com for more photos, large format video and streamflow information.

Snow and ice 18 days earlier. Starting to look like spring.

Video recorded on 10 January 2009. Palouse Falls and Kelly Underwood's jetboat is shown. Underwood launched his boat in the Snake River and navigated the lower Palouse River Canyon to reach Palouse Falls plunge pool.

Suspended sediment in the swollen Palouse River gives a clue to the color of Ice Age Flood flows.

Photo taken the same day from river level courtesy of Kelly Underwood.
A few days after I posted the Palouse Falls video on Youtube, I received a couple photos from the Jetboat pilot - Kelly Underwood (Dayton, WA). Kelly's second photo shows his boat with the Palouse Falls in the background. Click to view: Palouse Falls Jetboat.

Eighteen days earlier things sure looked different. Click to view photos and video of Palouse Falls Ice.

Palouse Falls State Park in Winter

2009-01-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

December Morning at Palouse Falls

Palouse Falls is a rewarding destination during periods of very cold weather ... If road conditions are good.

Photos posted here were taken during visits to the park in January and December 2008.

In southeastern Washington State, the Palouse River flows through a spectacular canyon cut into the Columbia River basalt between Washtucna Coulee and the Snake River.

During Ice Age Flood events, Washtucna Coulee was too small to carry the large volume of water sweeping down the Cheney-Palouse Scabland tract. In several locations floodwaters overtopped the south rim of the Coulee and stripped away over 300 feet of loess soil before attacking the Columbia River Basalt.
Several large fractures in the basalt existed at this location prior to the ice age floods. The weakness in the basalt along with a 500' elevation difference between Washtucna Coulee and the Snake River allowed floodwaters to shape this awesome canyon that is today occupied by the Palouse River.

The Palouse River Canyon was a key piece of evidence that finally helped convince many critics of J Harlen Bretz that catastrophic Ice Age Floods from Glacial Lake Missoula and possibly other sources had created the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington.

PALOUSE FALLS IN WINTER - VIDEO

Click arrow to view video of this amazing Ice Age Floods feature in winter. A large screen version of the same video is available at:
Ice Age Floods feature video

When Teresa and I visited in January, there was no snow on the ground as we approached the park. When we arrived at the viewpoint we enjoyed the site of frost and ice plastered canyon walls and an ice-covered plunge pool.

This shot was taken in January of 2008. Next winter I need to hike to the bottom of the canyon for better shots of the ice.

The falls and canyon are amazing to view and the setting even more incredible when you try to visualize the Ice Age floodwaters that cut this canyon and scoured out the huge plunge pool below the falls.

With record December snowfall in the Spokane area, things seem to be shaping up for high-volume Palouse River streamflows one of these days. For anyone interested in checking flow rates prior to a visit, I've included the link below to a USGS site with flow data obtained at Hooper (about 15 miles above the falls).

Palouse River Streamflow

Palouse River Canyon

The Palouse River flow was impressive during our January visit. Every 5-10 minutes a loud cracking sound originating from the plunge pool ice cover echoed through the canyon

Watch for deer in the park and along SR261 northwest of the park.

When visiting the falls in conditions similar to these, you'll occasionally hear a loud crash when sections of ice behind the falls break loose and drop.

I like the snow cover but not when it hides Stev Ominski's artwork on the recently installed interpretive panels. Note the brink of the falls beyond fence.

About a 300 foot drop.

Palouse Falls November 2008
Photo above was taken at the conclusion of a hike from Lyons Ferry to the Palouse Falls overlook. Click below to view images and trip report.
Palouse River Canyon Hike

THE CANYON CHANGES WITH THE SEASONS

Even though Palouse Falls State Park is centrally located between Washtucna, Kahlotus and Starbuck, I don't find myself traveling through the area very often. I was just there last week, but I hope to make two more trips in the next four months. The frozen canyon in these photos will soon thaw and river flows will swell a rate similar to the volume shown in the video below. A month or two after that the canyon wildflowers will burst into bloom.

A JETBOAT AT THE BASE OF PALOUSE FALLS

When I first saw this video I couldn't believe it. I had no idea that jetboaters could navigate the canyon between the Snake River and the Palouse Falls plunge pool. I sent an email to the guy who posted the video asking about his trip. He replied that his group had monitored the USGS flows and when they reached 4,000 cfs they made the run. He also mentioned that the river was filled with "trash" (I'm guessing that means wood and wads of tumbleweeds). Jetboat video posted by easchurman.

Notice the large amount of Palouse soil transported by the river during periods of high flow.

PALOUSE SOIL EROSION MONITORING

The USGS station at Hooper (mentioned above) collects more than streamflow data. Suspended sediment transported by the Palouse River is also measured. Results from the sampling confirms erosion control practices used by today's farmers have drastically reduced erosion when compared to samples obtained in the 1970s.

Soil Erosion in the Palouse River Basin

CANOEING TO PALOUSE FALLS

Another video from the Youtube site. This incredible canyon created by the Ice Age Floods provides opportunities for recreation to some. This slow-paced video illustrates how peaceful the inner canyon can be. nwwoodsman posted this video of his canoe trip from Lyons Ferry to the Palouse Falls plunge pool.

Use your mouse to navigate the map below. Choose between map, satellite or terrain view. The travel and zoom controls are also active.

View Larger Map

Driving directions from the Washington State Parks site (I like the "turn left at grain elevator" part):
Located 17 miles southeast of Washtucna.
From State Route 261 Washtucna: Drive southwest 5.8 miles to the State Route 261/260 junction, and turn left at the grain elevator. Follow State Route 261 southeast for 8.7 miles to Palouse Falls Road. Turn left, and follow the road to the end (approximately 2.5 miles).

Visit:HUGEfloods.com to learn more about Glacial Lake Missoula, Lake Bonneville and the Ice Age Floods.

Ginkgo Petrified Forest S.P. - Part II

2008-12-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

Ice-rafted erratic resting high above Columbia River at Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park near Vantage, WA.

Erratic: "A rock fragment carried by floating ice or the icesheet itself, deposited at some distance from the outcrop from which it was derived and generally composed of a different type of rock than the local bedrock"

Most of eastern Washington has been covered by Columbia River Basalt Group lava flows. The floods of basaltic lava were followed by catastrophic outburst floods of water from Glacial Lake Missoula and other sources. One of the most interesting features left by these floods are out-of-place "erratic" boulders transported in icebergs from northeastern Washington, Idaho, Montana and even parts of Canada. Most of the erratic boulders contrast the black/brown basalt bedrock.

Part I of this post includes photos and information about Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park along with links to other related sites.

All but two photos in this post were taken during a hike on 6 December, 2008. The image of Ginkgo S.P. sign and shot of pillow basalt contributed by Nick Zentner were taken several years ago.

One of six panels recently placed near the Ginkgo Petrified Forest interpretive center to help visitors understand the Ice Age Floods that swept over the Vantage area. The park certainly is an "Iceberg Graveyard".

Washington State Parks made a great move when they teamed with artist Stev Ominski to develop new Ice Age Floods interpretive panels for many of the parks. His illustrations of the Ice Age Floods do so much to tell the story of the floods and help all of us to "see the water".

Westbound truck climbs Interstate 90 between Vantage and Ellensburg. Ice-rafted erratic in foreground.

The lichen and moss patterns on some of the erratics are interesting. I'm not quite ready to start reading about those guys.

Ice-rafted erratics and debris are scattered from one side of this image to the other. A large iceberg melted at this location.

The many smaller stones, gravel and sand that are found between erratics in clusters and bergmounds don't show up very well in most of my photos. Some of the material is very colorful and reminds me of river gravel I've admired in Idaho and Montana.

Erratics and iceberg debris between Ryegrass and Schnebly coulees at a location known as Iceberg Pass.

Schnebly Coulee Erratics. Large erratic near the top of this image is featured in the next shot.

Schnebly Coulee erratic.

Arrow notes erratic boulder. Small group of mule deer is also shown.

Arrow points to Interstate 90 bridge at Vantage, Wa.

Nice table-top erratic above area known as Hell's Kitchen. View looking east over Columbia River channel.

Another shot showing smaller stones that accompanied larger erratics on their journey.

Looking north from ridge between Schnebly Coulee and Hell's Kitchen. The Cayuse Creek drainage (Last week's hike in Part I of this blog) is on the other side of high point in the distance.

Road to the original town of Vantage.
The town was moved to its present location during construction of Wanapum Dam in the early 60's. This photo shows part of the original highway that crossed river. Prior to dam construction, the bridge that currently spans the Snake River at Lyons Ferry was in place at this crossing. On the east side of the bridge the road followed the river's edge north to Frenchman Coulee. "Part I" of this post shows two images of the highway in Frenchman Coulee.

Ash layer from 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption along Old Vantage Highway.

So many ice-rafted rocks are laying around this park that some have been put to work. Arrow points to erratic being used to hold a sign post. Inset image shows erratic that's been tossed into rock crib anchoring section of park boundary fence.

Nice morning to visit the Clastic Dikes along Wanapum Lake..

I parked at sunrise in the Wanapum State Park swimming beach lot (no problem finding a space on December morning). A short walk down the trail shown in image leads to the Clastic Dikes found in a large deposit of plane-laminated sand. Note erratic in foreground and Sentinel Gap in the distance. Arrow marks one of the Clastic Dikes.

The Ice Age Floods Institute's Glossary of Technical Terms Related to the Ice Age Floods defines a Clastic Dike as:

"A feature that cuts across bedding structures and is composed of the sedimentary material it transects. Believed to be the result of fracturing and sediment movement due to earthquake shaking during or soon after cataclysmic flooding."

The face of this deposit seems fairly stable but please use caution if you visit.

Clastic Dike at left (Vertical light-colored band).

The unusual clastic dikes in central and southeastern Washington State appear in slackwater deposits left by the Ice Age Floods. Geologists believe these features are produced by seismic disturbance of saturated sediments.

"They probably formed as a result of ground shaking, which caused the wet sediments to flow down into or up along vertical earthquake-generated cracks in the flood deposits."

Bjornstad

Clastic dikes found in the Mid-Columbia Basin reach to the top of flood deposits, leading geologists to believe that an earthquake occurred during or soon after the last Ice Age Flood event.

In his book "On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods" Bruce Bjornstad describes Clastic Dikes and gives driving directions to some amazing exposures in the Mid-Columbia Basin. Two locations Bruce describes that I especially enjoyed visiting are: The clastic dikes found in the Touchet Valley and those near Starbuck.

Maybe not the best example. This wild looking thing is probably the most unusual clastic dike I've photographed. A clastic dike just a few yards from this one is as straight as any vertical line I could draw.

Note from Tom: I wouldn't recommend a special trip to visit clastic dikes but they are an interesting feature to enjoy if you're in the Vantage, Touchet or Starbuck area.

The fissures are filled with sand, silt, clay, and coarser debris. Thin clay and silt linings separate the margins and internal layers. -Fecht

The lack of slackwater silt in the material adjacent to these Clastic Dikes tell geologists the water was moving too fast to allow the fines to settle out before all the water escaped.

Find this stuff and you've found an ancient lake or river location. Where lava flowed into water, pillow basalt and palagonite were created.

Pillow basalt and palagonite in Schnebly Coulee.
Photo by Nick Zentner, President of the Ellensburg Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute. The cowboy hat is a nice touch Nick!

I've tried not to post too many shots taken around the Interpretive Center. I hope you'll explore the exhibits in person. Large petrified logs surround the building and the petrified wood collection on display inside is amazing.

Be sure to inquire about Interpretive Center hours of operation before traveling to visit. I would like to mention that long hikes in the summer at this park are probably not a great idea. Spring and fall are the best times to hike in this part of the state. If you're not familiar with the area, please take time to visit with a Park Ranger prior to hiking in the park.

Petrified knot on large log.

One more Kittitas County erratic.