Snake & Palouse Rivers
This morning we dropped anchor in the Palouse River just upstream from its confluence with the Snake River. Following a body-warming breakfast, much needed because the morning temperature hovered scarcely ten degrees above freezing, we divided into three groups—one going to Palouse Falls by bus, the second exploring the Palouse Canyon by Zodiacs, and the third kayaking the Palouse River. Palouse Falls itself is a spectacular sight. Water of the Palouse River drops approximately 180 feet into a plunge pool and then winds its way down a dramatic canyon cut through successive layers of basalt. To the geologist J. Harlan Bretz the current river seemed much too small to have cut such an immense canyon, and so he proposed that an immense flood released by the sudden collapse of an ice dam across the Clark Fork River (and holding back the waters of ancient Lake Missoula) cascaded across the portion of eastern Washington now known as the Channeled Scablands. This catastrophic inundation happened not just once but many times, allowing the rushing waters to sculpt the landscape not just of the Channeled Scablands but also the Snake and Columbia Rivers for hundreds of miles downstream.
Today’s picture is of Palouse Falls at the head of the majestic Palouse River Canyon.
This morning we dropped anchor in the Palouse River just upstream from its confluence with the Snake River. Following a body-warming breakfast, much needed because the morning temperature hovered scarcely ten degrees above freezing, we divided into three groups—one going to Palouse Falls by bus, the second exploring the Palouse Canyon by Zodiacs, and the third kayaking the Palouse River. Palouse Falls itself is a spectacular sight. Water of the Palouse River drops approximately 180 feet into a plunge pool and then winds its way down a dramatic canyon cut through successive layers of basalt. To the geologist J. Harlan Bretz the current river seemed much too small to have cut such an immense canyon, and so he proposed that an immense flood released by the sudden collapse of an ice dam across the Clark Fork River (and holding back the waters of ancient Lake Missoula) cascaded across the portion of eastern Washington now known as the Channeled Scablands. This catastrophic inundation happened not just once but many times, allowing the rushing waters to sculpt the landscape not just of the Channeled Scablands but also the Snake and Columbia Rivers for hundreds of miles downstream.
Today’s picture is of Palouse Falls at the head of the majestic Palouse River Canyon.
