Remnant – Snow Mountain Ranch
Back to Snow Mountain Ranch. Before it was a conservancy preserve, this beautiful countryside was a working ranch. Throughout the preserve, remnants of the past history are scattered about: watering tubs, barbed wire fences, barbed wire rolls, sheds, small corrals. These remnants of the past add interest to the preserve as well as provide photo opportunities.
Snow Mountain Ranch – Field of Wildflowers
Like I mentioned in my last post, my objective of this photo excursion was to first enjoy the beautiful day and wildflowers. Then my photographic objective was to collect a series of images that captured the “Grand Landscape” of wildflowers and the area as well as smaller “Intimate Landscape” of flowers, rocks, sage brush, and other interesting objects. This image is somewhere in between. I picked this image because it gave me a feeling of being amongst the wildflowers instead of being apart from them and viewing them against a distant background. I actually was down on my elbows and knees when I took this image with a wide angle lens.
Argillite Boulder – Rattlesnake Mountain, Washington
This image depicts an interesting perspective of time. The rock in the foreground was deposited here on Rattlesnake Mountain around 15,000 years ago. The Rattlesnake Mountain and the Horse Heaven Hills in the background were created as part of the Yakima Fold formation about 1.5 million years ago. The bedrock of this area is basalt from basalt flows through eastern Washington from 6-15 million years ago. The argillite boulder in the foreground is metamorphic rock from western Montana formed 1.5 billion years ago.
So here I was, sitting on a rock created before life on earth existed, brought here by a humongous flood around 15 thousand years ago, deposited on mountains uplifted 1.5 million years ago, created by a series of gigantic lava flows about 2 miles thick 6-15 million years ago. And I think I am old at 67 years. As many of my Whizzy friends would say, “It’s a thinker.”
Bergmound – Rattlesnake Mountain, Washington
As glaciers moved southward during the Ice Ages, they scoured the terrain picking up rock debris. During the Missoula Floods, parts of the glaciers would break off forming ice bergs. These were carried down through the Eastern Washington scablands into the Pasco basin. As Lake Lewis formed, many of the ice bergs floated to the edges of the lake. As the lake emptied, several of these ice bergs were left stranded on the surrounding ridges. They melted leaving mounds of accumulated rocks, gravel, and sand. These are “bergmounds”.
Most bergmounds are found in the Pasco Basin at elevations of 600 – 850 feet. They are 20 – 35 feet higher than the surrounding terrain. The bergmound pictured above is on a plateau of eastern Rattlesnake mountain above Richland, WA. The bergmounds are somewhat inconspicuous unless, one is looking for them.
Wildflowers – Snow Mountain Ranch, Cowiche, WA
Today is a special day. It is a day to celebrate the wonderful life Karen and I had together. What a better way to celebrate than to take a nice walk and enjoy the wildflowers of early Spring. It was a beautiful day. The hills were covered with brilliant wildflowers … yellow, pink, purple, blue and the lush green of spring grasses. Peace surrounded me. It was a wonderful time to reflect on our lives and what is right in this world.
It was a day to CELEBRATE !!!
Just a couple more petroglyphs from Gynko Petrified Forest Visitors Center
Petroglyph, Gynko Petrified Forest
This image was taken from below the Gynko Petrified Forest Visitor’s Center near Vantage Washington. Seeing these brought back many happy memories of my youth.
As a young Boy Scout, I can remember hiking along the Columbia River north of Vantage, Washington. Huge basalt cliffs rose above the free flowing river. We could climb up along the rocks and see these funny drawings made by ancient Indians. We did not think much of it back then. When the Wanapum Dam was built, the backwaters flooded the area where many of these artifacts were located. Luckily, someone had the foresight to carefully remove these petroglyphs before the water covered them up. Today several of the saved petroglyphs are displayed below the Gynko Petrified Forest Visitors Center.
Note: Notice the initials and heart above the man and woman. Why would anyone deface such a piece of our history????
Columbia River – West Bar
How calm the Columbia River looks. Fifteen thousand years ago, during the Ice Age Floods, it wasn’t quite like this. At that time the Columbia was flowing at the top of the basalt cliffs seen in the distance. The West Bar shown in the middle of this image is comprised of gravel. rock, and other sediments. It was part of the backwater created as the Columbia raged toward the left and then back down through the gorge. The surface of the bar is covered with giant ripples around thirty feet high.
This image was taken above Crescent Bar looking southwest.
Sentinel Gap Looking South from Frenchman’s Spring Coulee
This image was taken from the bottom of Frenchman’s Spring Coulee near where it enters the Columbia River. Sentinel Gap was cut across the Saddle Mountains by the Columbia River and the Ice Age Floods. During the floods, the Columbia River was at a level near the top of the eastern slope of the Gap. On the north side of the Gap, the Vantage Bridge and Wanapum Dam are faintly visible. Through the Gap, Umatilla and Rattlesnake Ridges are visible. And of course, the clouds make the image.
Frenchman’s Spring Coulee – near Vantage, WA
This image is taken from the top of the Frenchman’s Spring Coulee looking down toward the Columbia River. The mountains in the far background are the Cascade foothills. This coulee was created during the Ice Age Missoula Floods. It is the farthest south water path from the Quincy Basin to the Columbia River. The flood waters in the Quincy Basin were split by the Frenchman hills, just south of this coulee. The water flowed east into the Drumheller Channels toward Othello and west into the Columbia River via several coulees including Frenchman Springs.
The wind was howling, so I did not feel like getting too close to the edge. I bet this will make a good sunset or sunrise photo. I will be back.