Palouse River & Snake River
From a distance it has been entirely possible to totally miss the distinctive details of the massive Columbia River basalt flows. But not today! At sunrise, we were anchored at the confluence of the Palouse and Snake rivers.
We got up close and personal with the power of nature by observing and experiencing the Bretz flood carved and eroded basalts of the Palouse River Falls and the coulees below. As our Staff Naturalist, Verne Huser, explained: the angle of repose is not the incline at which you sleep! Although the title of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Wallace Stegner; for geologist, the angle of repose is the slope at which granular materials stop rolling downhill under the force of gravity. Time and time again we saw evidence of fractured and broken basalt fragments (caused by cycles of freezing and thawing) finding their angle of repose creating huge fanlike fields of rock debris below the imposing cliffs above.
Palouse Falls was a powerful magnet not only for the downward flow of water, but also for our explorative guests from the National Geographic Sea Bird. Somehow we never did run out of superlatives for Mother Nature’s grandeur at this scenic overlook. Overcast skies and some light drizzle did not deter us!
Whether by Zodiac or kayak, those that took to the waterway were able to spot the Marmes Rockshelter excavation site (humans here possible as early as 10,000 years BP); a beaver lodge; remnant mud nests of cliff swallows; numerous birds including western grebes, cormorants and coots; and a mule deer. Vegetation lined the watery route; and plants along the shore and upon the hillsides were in full autumnal color. Even lichens abounded, attesting to the health of the environment in this remote river ecosystem.
The afternoon skies cleared and sunshine once was again the order of the day as we rejoined the mainstream of the Snake River. Guests enjoyed learning more about the Lewis & Clark Expedition and the rivers they traversed, through intriguing presentations by staff, including: “Boats and Boating Techniques“ (Huser, Staff Naturalist), “33 People and A Big Black Dog” (Igo, Staff Historian) and “Fish in Crisis” (Rochester, Smithsonian Study Leader).
Following the path of Lewis & Clark westward, the trail and fantastic story of the Corps of Discovery lay before us yet to be explored. We are so looking forward to rounding each bend of every river just as they must have, almost exactly two hundred and four years ago.
