Exploring the Palouse River
Early this morning the MV Sea Lion slowed her engines on approach to her morning anchorage at the confluences of the Snake and Palouse Rivers. Once the hook was dropped just inside the mouth of the Palouse River, other preparations were made on board, for our day’s activities of kayaking and Zodiac cruises. The Palouse River, which is about 220 miles long, has its headwaters in Idaho and flows westward into Washington where it enters the Snake River from the north about 60 miles upstream from that river’s confluence with the Columbia River….between the Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams. Our day’s water activities were conducted in the lake that is backed up behind Lower Monumental dam.
After breakfast, kayakers were called to the aft section of the Sea Lion and taken by Zodiac to a staging area where they could enjoy a slow, solitary paddle through the spectacular scenery of basalt cliffs that make up the once narrow river bed of the Palouse River. The remainder of our group was split into two groups. The first group left the ship for a short Zodiac ride to shore where a luxury motor coach looking suspiciously like a school bus awaited their arrival. They journeyed a short distance to one of the more unusual geologic features of the area. Palouse Falls drops approximately 200 feet over a wide semicircle of eroded basaltic rock into an enormous plunge pool. This entire area and its present beauty were created by a series of water floods at the end of the last ice age nearly 12,000 years ago. At intervals of 50 to 100 years, great deluges of water rushed across the panhandle of Idaho down the flat country of eastern Washington, greatly eroding the exposed basaltic valley walls. The floods encountered the Snake River at its confluence with the Palouse River and turned the Snake River backwards from this point all the way into southern Idaho!
In the meantime, the other half of our group began a Zodiac tour of the Palouse River. Giving many of us a chance to view, close-up, the basalt terraces, occasional wildlife, and learn about the Palouse peoples who once lived at the confluences of the Snake and Palouse rivers in a large winter camp sight. The legends of enormous floods had been passed down among the Native peoples and are told in the rocks themselves, but only through our imaginations could we begin to fathom the roar, the hurricane force winds and dust that must have preceded a four to six hundred foot wall of water, as it moved west down the Snake river and into the Columbia, and finally finding an end at the mouth of the Columbia nearly 400 miles away!
During the late morning, our groups switched, and the two activities resumed; one group visiting Palouse Falls, while the other group headed up the carved basalt canyon that holds the Palouse River. Our weather had been cool but sunny, and as we all returned to the Sea Lion, large white clouds began moving from west to east, casting shadows over this unusual landscape called the Channeled Scablands. The Sea Lion continued her journey west down the Snake River heading for its confluence with the Columbia….we followed in the path of Lewis and Clark, nearly to the day, reflecting on their journey…..a journey that had opened this western country, and created the interest for many of us, who had journeyed to see this Pacific Northwest, both interior and coastal for the first time.
Early this morning the MV Sea Lion slowed her engines on approach to her morning anchorage at the confluences of the Snake and Palouse Rivers. Once the hook was dropped just inside the mouth of the Palouse River, other preparations were made on board, for our day’s activities of kayaking and Zodiac cruises. The Palouse River, which is about 220 miles long, has its headwaters in Idaho and flows westward into Washington where it enters the Snake River from the north about 60 miles upstream from that river’s confluence with the Columbia River….between the Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams. Our day’s water activities were conducted in the lake that is backed up behind Lower Monumental dam.
After breakfast, kayakers were called to the aft section of the Sea Lion and taken by Zodiac to a staging area where they could enjoy a slow, solitary paddle through the spectacular scenery of basalt cliffs that make up the once narrow river bed of the Palouse River. The remainder of our group was split into two groups. The first group left the ship for a short Zodiac ride to shore where a luxury motor coach looking suspiciously like a school bus awaited their arrival. They journeyed a short distance to one of the more unusual geologic features of the area. Palouse Falls drops approximately 200 feet over a wide semicircle of eroded basaltic rock into an enormous plunge pool. This entire area and its present beauty were created by a series of water floods at the end of the last ice age nearly 12,000 years ago. At intervals of 50 to 100 years, great deluges of water rushed across the panhandle of Idaho down the flat country of eastern Washington, greatly eroding the exposed basaltic valley walls. The floods encountered the Snake River at its confluence with the Palouse River and turned the Snake River backwards from this point all the way into southern Idaho!
In the meantime, the other half of our group began a Zodiac tour of the Palouse River. Giving many of us a chance to view, close-up, the basalt terraces, occasional wildlife, and learn about the Palouse peoples who once lived at the confluences of the Snake and Palouse rivers in a large winter camp sight. The legends of enormous floods had been passed down among the Native peoples and are told in the rocks themselves, but only through our imaginations could we begin to fathom the roar, the hurricane force winds and dust that must have preceded a four to six hundred foot wall of water, as it moved west down the Snake river and into the Columbia, and finally finding an end at the mouth of the Columbia nearly 400 miles away!
During the late morning, our groups switched, and the two activities resumed; one group visiting Palouse Falls, while the other group headed up the carved basalt canyon that holds the Palouse River. Our weather had been cool but sunny, and as we all returned to the Sea Lion, large white clouds began moving from west to east, casting shadows over this unusual landscape called the Channeled Scablands. The Sea Lion continued her journey west down the Snake River heading for its confluence with the Columbia….we followed in the path of Lewis and Clark, nearly to the day, reflecting on their journey…..a journey that had opened this western country, and created the interest for many of us, who had journeyed to see this Pacific Northwest, both interior and coastal for the first time.
