Palouse River
We awoke to another beautiful, clear day. Sea Bird anchored at the mouth of the Palouse River, which is a tributary of the Snake River. Right after breakfast we got ready for our various activities: kayaking, Zodiac sightseeing, and a visit to the Palouse Falls. The kayakers were first to depart, and we were shuttled further up the river to a marshy area where, after a short safety briefing, we pushed off and paddled into a lovely canyon. The songs of canyon wrens reverberated off the steep walls of the canyon, and a few red-tailed hawks flew over the river. About the time we turned around we met up with the people who had opted for the Zodiac tours, and we exchanged greetings and stories of what we had seen so far. The naturalists giving the tours explained about the geology of the canyon and the animals and plants that inhabit the area.
We also visited Palouse Falls State Park where the Palouse River cascades 180 feet down a basalt cliff. In the area around the waterfall the geology was quite evident as we could see several distinct layers of basalt. The basalt was laid down between sixteen and six million years ago from a series of eruptions centered in eastern Oregon. These ancient lava flows were extensive and covered most of eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and parts of Idaho. The surrounding landscape was shaped by the Bretz Floods, a series of massive, catastrophic floods at the end of the last ice age, and as we walked around the park we tried to imagine the incredible forces that it must have taken to carve the canyon below us.
When we got back to the ship we were treated to a barbecue lunch on the sun deck topped off by ice cream sundaes. The rest of the afternoon we continued down the Snake River on our way back to the Columbia.
We awoke to another beautiful, clear day. Sea Bird anchored at the mouth of the Palouse River, which is a tributary of the Snake River. Right after breakfast we got ready for our various activities: kayaking, Zodiac sightseeing, and a visit to the Palouse Falls. The kayakers were first to depart, and we were shuttled further up the river to a marshy area where, after a short safety briefing, we pushed off and paddled into a lovely canyon. The songs of canyon wrens reverberated off the steep walls of the canyon, and a few red-tailed hawks flew over the river. About the time we turned around we met up with the people who had opted for the Zodiac tours, and we exchanged greetings and stories of what we had seen so far. The naturalists giving the tours explained about the geology of the canyon and the animals and plants that inhabit the area.
We also visited Palouse Falls State Park where the Palouse River cascades 180 feet down a basalt cliff. In the area around the waterfall the geology was quite evident as we could see several distinct layers of basalt. The basalt was laid down between sixteen and six million years ago from a series of eruptions centered in eastern Oregon. These ancient lava flows were extensive and covered most of eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and parts of Idaho. The surrounding landscape was shaped by the Bretz Floods, a series of massive, catastrophic floods at the end of the last ice age, and as we walked around the park we tried to imagine the incredible forces that it must have taken to carve the canyon below us.
When we got back to the ship we were treated to a barbecue lunch on the sun deck topped off by ice cream sundaes. The rest of the afternoon we continued down the Snake River on our way back to the Columbia.
