Palouse River & Lower Monumental Dam
Viewing the film last evening about the Great Floods that occurred over 10,000 years ago during the last ice age was a great lead-in to our day’s adventure. In the midst of the forbidding Scablands are an isolated vestige of these floods, the Palouse River and Falls. We were able to see up close the beauty that nature sculpts in a very dramatic way from Zodiac rides up the river and hiking above the 160ft. tall falls.
Walking around the rim offers many excellent viewpoints to the winding river below from smaller cascading falls to a small lake behind the large fall, castle-like outcroppings and a beautiful snake-like topography leading down to the Snake River where we held anchor. Amidst all this beauty, some immature eagles were spotted catching some drafts as well as a peregrine falcon. Kayakers and Zodiac cruisers were excited to spot a porcupine climbing around a steep wall of the canyon as well as a mule deer crossing the river’s ambling flow.
Continuing to cruise west on the Snake to its confluence with the Columbia, we passed through Lower Monumental Lock just after lunch. Between siesta time and happy hour, a lively presentation on the “Top 10 Things Lewis and Clark hated most about Oregon” was given by our Staff Historian, Harry Fritz. Among those included the grim dreary winter weather; a diet of mostly fish, roots and dog; as well as fleas in their bedrolls!
Verne Huser, Staff Naturalist followed with a talk about Expedition boats and canoes; and just how the Corps of Discovery built them and maneuvered on the rivers they followed. Clouds with gold linings, and pink and mauve streaks across the sky provided a stunning sunset on our approach to Ice Harbor Lock and Dam.
This rounded out our day of exploration and learning more around this most incredible journey that definitely helped shape the history of our country, and continues to spark our imagination and appreciation to this day.
