Palouse Falls State Park

Railroad bridge over Snake River

Decided to ride to Palouse Falls State Park, about an hour and half drive away going westbound and more north into the dry arid desert climate of eastern Washington.  Drove in rolling hills, most of the time in the valley between two cliffs, in and out of small towns.  Dave got excited when we came into Starbuck - but no, Starbucks coffee was not to be found.


The drive along US 12 had warnings every now and then for high winds - they were right.  After turning off US 12 and heading north, the force of the wind pulled the back tonneau cover off the tracks of the bed of the truck and flopped it around.  A bit scary.  Will have to remember this area as we travel tomorrow on our way to Pendleton, Oregon.

Lower Falls of Palouse - main waterfall

The landscape got a bit more dreary - very little farms, did see deer skirting across the road.  Saw wind mill farms on both sides of the road - went on for miles.  We had followed the Snake River out of Clarkston and at one point the river veered north while we continued west.  Then we caught up with the Snake again.  And saw where the Palouse River joined it.  The Snake is getting wider and deeper as we travel west with the merging of all the rivers and creeks. And to think the barge/tugboat and also the riverboat we saw yesterday morning all transverse this river to and from Portland. Saw a couple of RV parks along the way and was surprised at how many campers were there, in the middle of nowhere.

Upper Falls of Palouse

At one point we saw two large bridges over the Snake - one was for the railroad and the other was for car traffic.  The car traffic bridge was very narrow, but managed to cross without anyone coming from the other direction. Impressive bridges, can't imagine how they maintain those, the height of the railroad bridge tremendous.

Got to Palouse Falls State Park and after parking the truck, we could hear the waterfall but could not see it.  Palouse Falls is an area that during the Ice Age was in the path of one of greatest floods on earth ever known.  They call it the Great Missoula Flood where hundreds of miles of water backed up  and eventually the dam broke and water, debris, and mud cascaded south and west and eventually drained into the Columbia River and on to the ocean.  Left massive fissures and columns of eroded rock.  This waterfall is what is left of that drainage that happened 60 million years ago. The Falls drops 186 feet from the lower falls (the big fall you see) and there are the upper falls that drop 52 feet.   Walked along the rim of the big falls area and started a conversation with a gentleman who had a huge videocamera set up - he was filming peregrine falcons.  He mentioned that on Youtube you can see a video of someone who kayaked over the falls setting a world record!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrveNdW_sj0

After talking with park hosts about what to see and do there, walked the rim trail up river to the upper falls of the Palouse.  Happy we found a Camas Flower - this is the main food substance that the Nez Perce Indians gathered, and at one point, when Lewis and Clark stumbled out of the Bitterroot Mountains on their way to the Pacific, starved and sick, the Indians fed them Camas roots - which is in the family of asparagus and dried salmon.  However - the men gorged themselves on this food and got even more ill!  .  Picnic'd and then started our return trip back.  A good day in eastern Washington.

Three Forks Crossroads

On our way back we stopped at the 'three fork' area that crossed over US 12 where Lewis and Clark used this pathway on land on their return trip, making their trip quicker by using this Nez Perce Indian trail.  I remember reading about this from the journals.