Palouse River and Palouse Falls
It was an active day spent enjoying the scenery of the grasslands, canyons, and waterways of eastern Washington, an area steeped in natural and human history. The Sea Bird anchored near the Joso Railroad Bridge, at one time the longest bridge of its height in America, at one mile long and 300 feet high. Kayakers set out in colorful boats down the slender Palouse River, while hikers braved a 3-hour trek over the plateaus that form the backdrop of this 500-foot canyon. Forty thousand years ago, during the last ice age, the Missoula floods carved out the canyon in a cataclysmic burst of water. But today it was a silent place, as it must have been when explorers passed through in recent centuries.
On our return from our hike, we spotted goldfinches fluttering over the blue water, and grebes and scoters kept their nervous distance as we made our way back to the Sea Bird. Just as Lewis and Clark switched from boat to horse and foot and then to boat again, so we resorted to a new form of travel to see Palouse Falls, the old-fashioned yellow school bus! This dramatic waterfall plunges 198 feet to the surface of the pool below and then continues an additional 100 feet into the water, making a spectacular underwater plume. The low rumble of the water serenaded us as we devoured brownies, melon, burgers and all the trimmings in an introduced oasis of Russian olives and black cottonwoods. Sagebrush and golden grasses dotted the pale, dry landscape as we rode the school bus back home to the Sea Bird and then took our next step down the Columbia at the Lower Monumental Dam.
It was an active day spent enjoying the scenery of the grasslands, canyons, and waterways of eastern Washington, an area steeped in natural and human history. The Sea Bird anchored near the Joso Railroad Bridge, at one time the longest bridge of its height in America, at one mile long and 300 feet high. Kayakers set out in colorful boats down the slender Palouse River, while hikers braved a 3-hour trek over the plateaus that form the backdrop of this 500-foot canyon. Forty thousand years ago, during the last ice age, the Missoula floods carved out the canyon in a cataclysmic burst of water. But today it was a silent place, as it must have been when explorers passed through in recent centuries.
On our return from our hike, we spotted goldfinches fluttering over the blue water, and grebes and scoters kept their nervous distance as we made our way back to the Sea Bird. Just as Lewis and Clark switched from boat to horse and foot and then to boat again, so we resorted to a new form of travel to see Palouse Falls, the old-fashioned yellow school bus! This dramatic waterfall plunges 198 feet to the surface of the pool below and then continues an additional 100 feet into the water, making a spectacular underwater plume. The low rumble of the water serenaded us as we devoured brownies, melon, burgers and all the trimmings in an introduced oasis of Russian olives and black cottonwoods. Sagebrush and golden grasses dotted the pale, dry landscape as we rode the school bus back home to the Sea Bird and then took our next step down the Columbia at the Lower Monumental Dam.
