Washington State Scablands

Hi:

Does anyone know anything about this area? Can you point me to interesting areas to see? I would like to see the large holes in the ground left by the flood and interesting rock formations. I know it's a large area and since I'll be there during weekend trips, I don't really have time to hunt all over the place so I'd appreciate any specific destinations.

For the rest of you, a few weeks ago there was a NOVA special on the great flood in the last period when glaciers crept down into Montana, built a huge lake shich broke thru the glacial dam and flooded a large seciton of Washington with unbelieveable amounts of water. It transformed the ladscape and created unusual and bizarre land formations - thus the term 'scablands'.

Thanks.

-Mike

You might want to check the area out around Soap Lake, some impressive land formations in that area, also south of I-90 about 50 miles before Spokane is pretty interesting to photograph, around Grand Coulee is also nice, especially if you catch the right light, Dry Falls is a fantastic area to photograph as well.

The area I live in now, is right on the shore of the old Missoula lake, the lake actually filled several times and the dam broke over the 1000's of years, and was instrimental on helping to create the Columbia River gorge, which in itself is a fantastic place to photograph.

Have fun Mike, great stuff out there to shoot.

Dave

Scablands

The following link has a good image showing the different geological areas (but not roads) in Eastern Washington:

http://www.bentler.us/eastern-washington/east-state-map.aspx

I actually live in southeast Washington and have driven through these areas but only done a little photography in the Cheney-Palouse scablands, which are relatively close to my home. The Mountaineers have published a 100 Hikes in Central Washington book (or something like that) that covers a lot of these areas.

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/dutch/VTrips/Scablands0.HTM for ideas. Dry Falls area is at the top of the list.

If you don't already have one, pick up a Delorme "Washington Atlas & Gazateer" (G.I. Joes, REI etc.) - it includes topographical maps and shows roads, backroads, forest service roads etc.

Enjoy.

Edit: Be sure to go to the bottom of the above link and click on the various trips.

This is awesome info, folks. What would the weather be like over Thanksgiving. It's the only decent stretch of time that I could make it out there. I assume cold and windy. Is it snowy there?

I understand there are areas with large holes dug into the bedrock by the flood. Are these the Potholes?

Thanks.

-Mike

mikewhi said:

What would the weather be like over Thanksgiving.

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Click on the map numbers of the areas you're interested in:
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/climsmwa.html

mikewhi said:

I understand there are areas with large holes dug into the bedrock by the flood. Are these the Potholes?

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Potholes formed by the flood are found everywhere throughout the scablands as they were formed by the vortices of the flowing water; some are huge. The area frequently referred to as "The Potholes" is a few small lakes (e.g. Banks Lake) generally located in an area that begins south of Moses Lake; Potholes State Park is in this area.