Category Archives: Landscape Photography

Drumheller Channels Overlook

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Drumheller Channels Overlook

It is hard to comprehend how enormous the Missoula Ice Age Floods were.  The edge of the bluff in the top left hand corner is approximately 200 feet high.  The water level during the Missoula Floods was about 200 feet above the top of the mesa.  The distance across the Drumheller Channels was 8-11 miles wide.  The water is estimated to have moved through here at 50+ miles/hour.  The landscape left behind is amazing.  My mind wanders about contemplating what it must have been like.

This image was taken at the overlook off the main road running through the reserve.

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Missoula Floods: Rattlesnake Ridge – Here Comes the Rain

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Rattlesnake Ridge and Pasco Basin from Saddle Mountain, Washington

This image was taken from the top of Saddle Mountain looking southwest toward Rattlesnake Ridge.  During the Missoula Floods, the water level of Lake Lewis between these two ridges was about 600 feet above the current basin floor.

As I was photographing on top of the mountain, I felt a cold wind pick up.  The skies turned dark and I could see the rain coming toward me.  I decided it was a good time to pack up my gear and head down the steep gravel/dirt road before it turned to mud.  It was the end of a good day and a great trip driving around the Pasco basin exploring for traces of the Ice Age floods.

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Missoula Floods: Sentinel Gap 2

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Sentinel Gap, Washington

This image was taken north of Sentinel Gap, looking south.  The Columbia River is barely visible in the center of the photo.  During the Ice Age Missoula Floods, Crab Creek thundered through here joining the Columbia River.  This was the western path for the waters rushing through Drumheller Channels as it was diverted by the Saddle Mountains.  The small rocks in the foreground are likely to have been carried by the rush of water as it carved out the scablands through the Drumheller Channels.

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Missoula Floods: Sentinel Gap

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Sentinel Gap, Washington

This image was taken looking north through Sentinel Gap.  This gap cuts through the Saddle Mountains which separate the Pasco and Othello basins in Eastern Washington.  The Columbia River runs through this gap on its way to the Oregon/Washington border.  At the time of the Missoula Floods, the water level going through the gap reached the top of the left ridge, flowing into Lake Lewis which covered the Pasco basin.

The erratics in the foreground most likely are from the gap, carved away by the raging wall of water that flowed through it.

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Missoula Floods: How Did This Get Here?

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Granite Erratic in Pasco Basin, Washington

The Central Washington Basin is covered with layers of basalt, totaling as much as 2 miles thick, created by huge lava flows 8-15 million years ago.  The nearest source of granite rock is several hundred miles away.  This photo was taken near the Hanford site north of Richland.  The granite rock was about 1/4 mile from the road.  My lens combination was 560mm.  For reference, the actual height of the rock (above ground) is about 12 feet.  It is a big granite rock.  How did it get here???

The current theory is that it was brought here as part of the ice dam that broke loose during one of the Missoula floods around 15,000 years ago.  As the ice melted, embedded rocks were released.  The Pasco basin and its surround hills have many such erratics.

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Missoula Floods: This Was Once a Lake

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Pasco Basin and Columbia River, Washington

This image was taken from the top of Saddle Mountain looking south toward the Pasco Basin. (Yesterday’s post was from the same location looking north toward the Othello Basin.)

Can you believe that this was once a 800 foot deep lake?  During the Missoula floods, water entered the Pasco Basin northeast from the Palouse, north from the Drumheller/Othello Channels and northwest from the Columbia River through Sentinel Gap.  Wallula Gap blocked the water from flowing freely through the Columbia Gorge to the Pacific Ocean.  The result was the temporary Ice Age Lake Lewis.  Today, the Columbia River meanders through the basin.  The Hanford Nuclear Research facility is located south and east of the river.  Rattlesnake Ridge is visible in the background.

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A Day in the Canyon: Abstract Art

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Basalt, Yaklma River Canyon

These pieces of basalt (approximately 18 inches in length) caught my as I was exploring road cuts in the Yakima River Canyon.  They seemed to be accented by an artists brush.  Different patterns and different colors abounded in adjacent rocks.  Since the rocks were adjacent and seem to be part of the same basalt flow, why are they so different in surface color and pattern. I need to do a little research on what factors determine the color and patterns.

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Missoula Floods: Facing Drumheller Channels

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Drumheller Channels in Distance from Top of Saddle Mountain

This image was taken from the top of Saddle Mountain (~1,300 ft elevation) looking north east over the Othello basin toward the Drumheller Channels.  Imagine a wall of water 200 – 300 feet high racing over an 8-11 mile stretch over the Drumheller Channels at over 60 miles per hour.  This was the amount of water that was released (multiple times) when the Lake Missoula glacier dam broke releasing the water over the Eastern Washington basin.  Saddle Mountain broke the onslaught of water.  Some flowed west through the Crab Creek Coulee to the Columbia River and Sentinal Gap.  The remainder rushed around the eastern edge of the Mountain and into the Pasco Basin and Lake Lewis.

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A Day in the Canyon: Vertical Basalt Columns

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Vertical Basalt Columns – Yakima River Canyon

A couple of miles up the road from my last post, I saw these basalt columns protruding vertically upward.  They were located on a different ridge.  The forces driving the uplift were different than the ones from the first ridge.  I ask why, what caused the difference? Did this ridge lift at a different time or were the forces just different from the ridge in the first post.  My curiosity kills me.  I think I need to do more research on how these “Yakima Folds” evolved.

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A Day in the Canyon: Tilted Basalt

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Tilted Basalt Columns – Yakima River Canyon

This tilted basalt was the result of a plate fold being pushed up from a diagonal force.  Throughout the Yakima River Canyon the basalt columns show displacement in various directions.  This illustrates that forces were lateral pushing toward each other creating a “fold”.

The basalt shown here is in a “columnar” formation.  Basalt formed like this cooled very slowly, creating a soother texture.

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