Tag Archives: Steptoe Butte

Squiggles

“Steptoe View”
The Palouse, Washington

One of my favorite places to be in Washington State is on Steptoe Butte in the Palouse. It is a place where I can gaze over the rolling hills of the farm land below and dream of the past, present, and future. Time goes by, clouds skim across the sky. Little ‘ant-like’ vehicles move about. Memories flash through my mind. When I was a little tyke, Uncle Ben and I would walk out to the sagebrush ridge past our orchard. We had our special rock where we would sit and look over the Naches valley below. Farmers would be working their fields, driving their tractors back and forth. He would tell me stories both fictional and of his past experiences. I would dream.

I close my eyes, then open them up again. The farm land fades away. In its place emerges a pattern of textures, tones, and curves. The scene below becomes a flowing blanket as the shadows from the clouds traverse across.

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An Anomaly

“Steptoe Butte”
The Palouse, Washington

The Columbia River Lava flows make up most of the bedrock of the Palouse. Fifteen to eighteen million years ago fissures in southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho spewed out great lava flows over the Columbia Basin. Steptoe Butte created by a metamorphic rock protrusion 400 million years ago rises 1000 feet above the lava flows.

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Steptoe Butte


Steptoe Butte from Kamiak State Park

About an hour prior to taking this image, I was at the top of Steptoe looking over the Palouse Plain. (Refer to the first image of this series I posted about a week ago.) Now I am at the bottom of Kamiak Butte looking across the plain up to Steptoe Butte. In this image, I am trying to emphasize the curves of the fields and how they “feed up” toward Steptoe. The small bales of hay in the middle field add a little scale to the image.

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