Loading

Dry Falls

An enormous dry waterfall in the middle of the Grand Coulee, eastern Washington state, USA. It was formed by the gigantic Spokane (a.k.a. Scabland, Missoula) floods during the last ice age, when a glacial dam in what's now northernmost Idaho would collapse periodically. The glacier, a tongue of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, backed up glacial Lake Missoula into the Rocky Mountain trench, and so all that water would suddenly go sloshing across eastern Washington. The floods left behind the Channeled Scabland, a distinctive topography of buttes, coulees (flat-bottomed canyons), channels, closed basins, and enormous ripple deposits.
Visible by: Everyone
(more information)

More information

Visible by: Everyone

All rights reserved

Report this photo as inappropriate

6 comments

William Sutherland said:

Outstanding capture!

Admired in:
www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance
11 years ago

Pam J said:

This is superb Steve .... as is the commentary.

I have a friend who hikes many many 100s of miles a year and he sent some of the Idaho 'end" on his way meandering back from Alaska this year.
11 years ago

slgwv replied to Pam J:

I've thought that parts of the coulee country look a lot like the plateau country of Utah, but done in black basalt rather than red sandstone!
11 years ago

slgwv said:

Thanks, everyone!
11 years ago ( translate )

tiabunna said:

A fascinating landscape and most informative background.
11 years ago ( translate )

slgwv replied to tiabunna:

Thanks!
11 years ago