The day started with crisp air in a new landscape. Overnight we traveled up the Snake River to its confluence with the Palouse. This beautiful river is the main tributary of the Snake, which in turn is the main tributary to the Columbia. National Geographic Quest anchored at Lyon’s Ferry park where we would depart for the day’s activities.
We rode buses to Palouse falls, a dramatic and beautiful waterfall in an amazing landscape. Some of us explored the area via kayak, paddling around the calm waters and taking in the wonderful morning. Zodiac cruises showed us further up the Palouse river, exposing its winding path and stunning walls. All these activities brought us up close to the basalt flows in all their forms: talus slopes, columnar shapes, and entablature for example. Wildlife was abound during our day: rafts of coots, geese, and ducks took advantage of the morning where hawks, eagles, and ravens came out with the sun. Some of us even saw several mink walking along the log booms!
We had a delicious lunch aboard National Geographic Quest followed by a series of presentations and events, the highlight perhaps being a margarita bar on the sun deck during a beautiful afternoon! As the day went on we approached the Little Goose dam. On this voyage we’ve gotten to see many different dams and locks, this transit would be our last one during daylight. Once secured we were quickly raised around one hundred feet. It’s always a humbling feeling being deep in the massive locks, and to think on our voyage we’ve traveled approximately 730 feet vertically.
It was another great day on the river, tonight we’ll enjoy another marvelous dinner and look forward to tomorrow.
