The FJR Goes on a Geology Lesson to Dry Falls Visitor Center

[Fontanaman]

I am fascinated by the Great Glacial Floods that shaped the landscape in Eastern Washington and Northwest Oregon. One of the best places to learn about the Great Floods is, get ready for it, here it comes, is Dry Falls Visitor Center. The Grand Coulee was carved out by the Great Flood. The carving process is illustrated below.

Today Grand Coulee is 400 feet deep and 3.5 miles wide. The floods were were 300 higher so Dry Falls were merely a bump for water on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Learn more about the Great Floods by visiting this web site. Take few minutes to study the history to increase your appreciation of the Great Floods on this landscape.

The trip today starts out innocently enough with an railroad museum near Davenport Washington.

It is straight road in farmland country skirting the lower Okanogan Highlands so there are a few pine trees here and there.

I arrive at Dry Falls Visitor Center and read this:

Zow the water was 300 feet higher than the top of the Coulee.

The cliffs are 400 high.....

At the interpretive center I learned about the Camas Prairie Ripple Marks in Montana created by Glacial Lake Missoula. This was the last piece of definitive evidence supporting the Great Floods theory.

Now it was time to head north and find some twisty roads so I head north along Banks Lake.

Remember this cliffs here are 400' tall.

Steamboat Rock

Neat rock formations. Great Floods are good!

Grand Coulee Dam - named after the Grand Coulee but it was not understood what formed the Grand Coulee until long after the dam was built.

The best twisty sections are on Cache Creek and Bridge Creek roads. Bridge Creek is 45 miles long with lots of twisty stuff. This is where my new Dunlop RS3s got scrubbed in pretty good. The Colville tribe has set the speed limit at 35mph near the summit. Clearly this is notional. FJR nominal is perfect for this great road. Sorry no photos - I was kinda busy having too much fun. Damn I love this retirement gig.

Inchelium-Gifford Ferry.

Clouds to the north. I was heading south.

Near Hunters Washington.

Self portrait.

FJR.

Columbia River near Wellpinit.

It was a great day to be retired and on the FJR!

 

[Niehart]

^^^ Like ^^^

 

[saread]

Nice trip. Being a civil engineer, I get all misty eyed when I see the Great Dam. Those were the days....

 

[escapefjrtist]

Thanks for sharing the pics and trip Fontanaman!

~G

 

[Bugnatr]

Good stuff Jim, love the ferry (my first FJR ferry ride was there).

If you have not done so go back and spend a night at the Grand Coulee dam. The laser light show on the front of the dam is awesome, be sure to take a dam tour of the power power house on the east side. Both are well worth the effort and time.

 

[Ignacio]

I'm there too. Columbia River Basalt Group and FJRs are two great things to be into! Thanks for the great pictures of roads I've been fortunate enough to wander myself, ferries, and vistas we get out here in the channeled scab lands of EWA.

I'm coming into the geology portion more recently and certainly new about the basalt flows and more recent floods, but once I started watching Nick Zentner's videos--I was so hooked that I drove up to Ellensburg this spring and watched one of his free community lectures first-hand. Now, I'm looking out for examples of the Elephant Mountain Member flows, pillow basalt, erratics, and well-formed zones between collanades and entablatures.

Thanks for the geek-out.

 

[Fontanaman]

I'm there too. Columbia River Basalt Group and FJRs are two great things to be into! Thanks for the great pictures of roads I've been fortunate enough to wander myself, ferries, and vistas we get out here in the channeled scab lands of EWA.
I'm coming into the geology portion more recently and certainly new about the basalt flows and more recent floods, but once I started watching Nick Zentner's videos--I was so hooked that I drove up to Ellensburg this spring and watched one of his free community lectures first-hand. Now, I'm looking out for examples of the Elephant Mountain Member flows, pillow basalt, erratics, and well-formed zones between collanades and entablatures.

Thanks for the geek-out.

Thanks Iggy. We ride for a lot of reasons, RTE, LD, meet friends or just for fun. We will ride if somebody drops a dime. Why not ride to understand how the landscape we enjoy came to be? I find it fascinating. Thanks for the You Tube Link.

 

[Cyclepath]

Thanks for the reminder Fontanaman - I ripped through the Colville Reservation roads (including Bridge Road into Inchelium last July for the first time.

Liked that stretch so much, I've convinced about 6 other guys to ride through it in the other direction with me again - June 22nd we pass through there before shooting northwest for the joy of the western half of Cascade highway 20.

I'm like a giddy schoolgirl in anticipation...

 

[Panman]

You all need to ride with Jimmy, he took all of that geology stuff. On the way home from Spearfish three years ago he would see some cliffs and tell me about the layers and how they were formed.

We walked around Devils Tower and gave me the whole run down, pretty cool guy to spend a few days with on the Motorcycle!

 

[gregory]

Great RR! Been to the Grand Coolie myself, very impressive