This morning the Sea Lion moved carefully towards her anchorage at the confluence of the Snake and Palouse Rivers. Captain Delisle maneuvered slowly in a thin layer of fog. It was a chilly fall morning with the air temperature much colder than the water temperature creating this vaporous light. Our activities for the morning would include exploration of this area by zodiac, kayak and a long hike with views down over the river. Soon all modes of transport were sent away from the Sea Lion and we peered through the eerie light, watching the sun quickly burn through a thin veil of mist. What was revealed were enormous cliffs made of the Columbia River Basalt flows that had been sculpted and shaped by catastrophic floods some twelve to fifteen thousand years ago. The Clark Fork River, located in northern Montana, had been blocked by ice dams creating Glacial Lake Missoula. As that ice dam was repeatedly broken by the sheer weight of water, four hundred feet of water came ripping through this area over and over again, carving out this deep valley where the Palouse River runs today. The legends have been passed down among the Native peoples and are told in the rocks themselves, but, only through our imaginations could we begin to fathom the roar, the hurricane force winds and dust that must have preceded this wall of water as it moved west.
As our morning progressed, the sun broke through the misty curtain revealing enormous basalt formations shrouded in the mystery of fall shadows. We listened to birds, Mule deer climbing the talus slopes and occasional our own conversations carried on light breezes.
