Palouse Falls State Park River Canyon Washington
Rivers-Creeks-Streams

by

Art Sandi

Palouse Falls State Park River Canyon Washington
View Larger
Palouse Falls State Park River Canyon Washington
Photography Art Times And Miles Spent In Nature, Palouse Falls State Park River Canyon, WA Palouse Falls is a waterfall on the Palouse River, about 4 mi (6 km) upstream of the confluence with the Snake River in southeast Washington, United States. The falls are 200 ft (61 m) in height.[2] The falls consist of an upper fall with a drop around 20 ft (6.1 m), which lies 1,000 ft (305 m) north-northwest of the main drop, and a lower fall, with a drop of 200 ft (61 m). It is in the 94-acre (38 ha) Palouse Falls State Park. The canyon at the falls is 115 m (377 ft) deep, exposing a large cross-section of the Columbia River Basalt Group. These falls and the canyon downstream are an important feature of the channeled scablands created by the great Missoula floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and across the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistocene epoch.[3][4][5] The ancestral Palouse River flowed through the currently dry Washtucna Coulee to the Columbia River. The Palouse Falls and surrounding canyons were created when the Missoula floods overtopped the south valley wall of the ancestral Palouse River, diverting it to the current course to the Snake River by erosion of a new channel.[3][6] The area is characterized by interconnected and hanging flood-created coulees, cataracts, plunge pools, kolk-created potholes, rock benches, buttes, and pinnacles typical of scablands. Palouse Falls State Park is located at the falls, protecting this part of the uniquely scenic area.[5] Wikipedia
Bookmark and Share