“…At 10Ms. [a] little river [the Palouse] in a Stard. Bend, immediately below a long bad rapid in which the water is confined in a Chanel of about 20 yards between rugid rocks for the distance of a mile and a half… This must be a verry bad place in high water, here is great fishing place, the timber of Several houses piled up, and a number of wholes of fish, and the bottom appears to have been made use of as a place of deposit for their fish for ages past…
Exactly one hundred and ninety-eight years and one week ago, the Corps of Discovery passed the mouth of the Palouse River in what is now eastern Washington, made brief note of the scene and hurried on their way toward the distant Pacific. Today, the rapids Captain Clark wrote of are submerged in the waters behind Lower Monumental Dam, an attractive little state park and boat ramp have replaced the timber houses of the Palouse people and there are no longer any salmon drying on racks along the shore. But the “rugid rocks” remain, just as Lewis and Clark saw them two centuries ago.
Although the captains were excellent naturalists, it was left to a 20th Century geologist, J. Harlan Bretz, to elucidate the story these rocks tell. Working primarily on foot in the early decades of the century, Bretz slowly accumulated the evidence that revealed the astounding and unique history of the landscape around this little desert river, carved by catastrophic floods at the close of the last Ice Age.
We spent our morning exploring the Palouse country, by bus, by Zodiac and in kayaks. Paddling around towering mesas cut from the basaltic bedrock by the terrible floods, riding up into the countryside above the canyon to gaze at a lovely waterfall cascading into an outrageously outsized plunge pool, or cruising along behind Great Blue Herons as they left the river to fly over the long slopes of dark scree beneath the cliffs, we gained a wonderfully rich impression of the challenge Bretz undertook and the incredible events he revealed.
Cruising further down the Snake this afternoon, we enjoyed a presentation on the experiences of the Corps of Discovery as they traveled through this region. Finally, as evening fell, we gathered on the bow to watch the glorious sunset before retiring below for another delicious meal. We know that Lewis and Clark certainly didn’t travel in this kind of comfort, but perhaps they too were thrilled by pink and orange clouds in the sunset when they camped nearby, two centuries ago.
Captain William Clark, October 13, 1805
Exactly one hundred and ninety-eight years and one week ago, the Corps of Discovery passed the mouth of the Palouse River in what is now eastern Washington, made brief note of the scene and hurried on their way toward the distant Pacific. Today, the rapids Captain Clark wrote of are submerged in the waters behind Lower Monumental Dam, an attractive little state park and boat ramp have replaced the timber houses of the Palouse people and there are no longer any salmon drying on racks along the shore. But the “rugid rocks” remain, just as Lewis and Clark saw them two centuries ago.
Although the captains were excellent naturalists, it was left to a 20th Century geologist, J. Harlan Bretz, to elucidate the story these rocks tell. Working primarily on foot in the early decades of the century, Bretz slowly accumulated the evidence that revealed the astounding and unique history of the landscape around this little desert river, carved by catastrophic floods at the close of the last Ice Age.
We spent our morning exploring the Palouse country, by bus, by Zodiac and in kayaks. Paddling around towering mesas cut from the basaltic bedrock by the terrible floods, riding up into the countryside above the canyon to gaze at a lovely waterfall cascading into an outrageously outsized plunge pool, or cruising along behind Great Blue Herons as they left the river to fly over the long slopes of dark scree beneath the cliffs, we gained a wonderfully rich impression of the challenge Bretz undertook and the incredible events he revealed.
Cruising further down the Snake this afternoon, we enjoyed a presentation on the experiences of the Corps of Discovery as they traveled through this region. Finally, as evening fell, we gathered on the bow to watch the glorious sunset before retiring below for another delicious meal. We know that Lewis and Clark certainly didn’t travel in this kind of comfort, but perhaps they too were thrilled by pink and orange clouds in the sunset when they camped nearby, two centuries ago.
