Palouse River Valley, Washington
A fast-moving frontal system came through the area yesterday afternoon and this morning, bringing with it gusty winds and even rain at times. Did we let that deter us? Not in the least! We woke up this morning ready to explore the serene beauty of the Palouse River Valley. We had traveled about eighty miles west during the night, transiting the locks at Little Goose and Lower Granite Dams on the Snake River. We dropped anchor just a little way up the Palouse River beyond its confluence with the Snake, boarded our Zodiacs, and went ashore to for the short bus ride up to Palouse Falls. The dramatic falls, cutting into the basalt and plunging 185 feet into the circular basin below, were booming due to the recent rainfall.
The living proof of the massive Bretz Floods was in evidence everywhere. The Bretz Floods were caused by the temporary impounding of water behind huge glacial ice dams forming lakes of tremendous size. When the dams finally lost integrity and collapsed, torrents of water 500 feet high and moving 60 miles per hour ripped through the northwest all the way to the Willamette Valley. These floods poured out of the Idaho panhandle perhaps as many as 100 times, carving the channeled scablands, valleys and cliffs and depositing piles of sediment often reaching the incredible height of several hundred feet! The stalling of the flood waters at some locations, such as Wallula Gap near the Washington-Oregon border, contributed to the build-up of the rich loess that make this area one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country.
After exploring the falls in the company of yellow-bellied marmots and several western kingbirds (to name just a few species we identified), we returned to the beach for our next set of activities. Some of us went upstream to try our hand at kayaking while others explored the canyon with the Natural History Staff by Zodiac. The kayaker’s eye view shown above was just one of the many magnificent vistas that unfolded around us as we plied the river in the late morning. We returned to the Sea Lion just in time to enjoy a hearty barbeque lunch on deck before sailing west towards the mighty Columbia.
A fast-moving frontal system came through the area yesterday afternoon and this morning, bringing with it gusty winds and even rain at times. Did we let that deter us? Not in the least! We woke up this morning ready to explore the serene beauty of the Palouse River Valley. We had traveled about eighty miles west during the night, transiting the locks at Little Goose and Lower Granite Dams on the Snake River. We dropped anchor just a little way up the Palouse River beyond its confluence with the Snake, boarded our Zodiacs, and went ashore to for the short bus ride up to Palouse Falls. The dramatic falls, cutting into the basalt and plunging 185 feet into the circular basin below, were booming due to the recent rainfall.
The living proof of the massive Bretz Floods was in evidence everywhere. The Bretz Floods were caused by the temporary impounding of water behind huge glacial ice dams forming lakes of tremendous size. When the dams finally lost integrity and collapsed, torrents of water 500 feet high and moving 60 miles per hour ripped through the northwest all the way to the Willamette Valley. These floods poured out of the Idaho panhandle perhaps as many as 100 times, carving the channeled scablands, valleys and cliffs and depositing piles of sediment often reaching the incredible height of several hundred feet! The stalling of the flood waters at some locations, such as Wallula Gap near the Washington-Oregon border, contributed to the build-up of the rich loess that make this area one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country.
After exploring the falls in the company of yellow-bellied marmots and several western kingbirds (to name just a few species we identified), we returned to the beach for our next set of activities. Some of us went upstream to try our hand at kayaking while others explored the canyon with the Natural History Staff by Zodiac. The kayaker’s eye view shown above was just one of the many magnificent vistas that unfolded around us as we plied the river in the late morning. We returned to the Sea Lion just in time to enjoy a hearty barbeque lunch on deck before sailing west towards the mighty Columbia.
