Massive Floods On The Yellowstone Trail

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

I realize that a map may help locate sites in unfamiliar areas so I have numbered the photos in my four related Yellowstone Trail posts on the map. You will find the number in the caption of each photo.

We left Waterville and David and Amy at the Hotel Tuesday headed east on US 2, AKA the 1925 Yellowstone Trail, the National Parks Highway, and the Sunset Highway, A wealth of old roads! Before we left, David gave me a recent book describing a trip along the National Parks Highway in 1919, as well as a copy of an original 1925 map of Washington I didn’t have in my collection. I gave them copies of half a dozen 1917-1920 strip maps of the old road produced by the Automobile Club of Western Washington.

We backtracked a couple of miles to photograph a picturesque Dr Pierces sign visible from US 2 as you come into Waterville from the west.

Barn just west of Waterville (Map Location 1)

The hamlet of Douglas, a few miles east of Waterville was on the Yellowstone. The Douglas General store was closed, but it looked like only a seasonal thing. I certainly hope so, as it is a special stop on the old trail.

Douglas General Store (taken two years ago)...on the Yellowstone Trail Route (Map Location 2)

There isn’t a lot to stop for between Douglas and Moses Coulee. Fifteen Million years ago 64000 square miles of the northwest was covered with layer upon layer of lava. The Missoula Floods swept the surface clear. Some of the lava layers are exposed in the Moses Coulee, a deep gash miles long and a couple of miles wide that runs through the Waterville plateau.

The Moses Coulee was cut by the outflow and floods of ice age lakes Spokane and Columbia and the Waterville plateau was scoured by the famed Missoula Floods that occurred when a huge ice dam near Missoula, Montana broke repeatedly over eons and released the water of Lake Missoula.

Moses Coulee from the Old Yellowstone Trail Alignment (Map Location 3)

The old highway snaked up the side of the Coulee on the only roadbed possible in days when horses pulled the road making equipment. US 2 now climbs out of the coulee on a massive fill and cut, probably viable from the moon with binoculars!

I had studied the route of the old Yellowstone Trail using Delorme and Google Earth, but you never really know whether you can travel it in a little sedan until you are on the ground. At the very bottom of the Coulee we picked up a dirt road that took us perhaps a quarter mile through sagebrush and rock. Then in from the right swung the old pavement, complete with the old white line.

Dodging the sagebrush that had encroached from the sides making it a one laner, we started up the old grade. Halfway up we found an old sign still standing, advertising a long gone bank in Coulee City, and the remains of a rusting car beside the road

The road wound up the edge of the Coulee with magnificent views down the canyon. The lack of any kind of guard rail suggested that the road may have been abandoned some time ago. There was an unguarded several hundred foot drop off the edge.

Looking south down the Coulee from the old road. You can see the massive fill of the new road in the distance. (Map Location 3)

To view in 3D, stare at the two images and slowly cross your eyes until you get a third 3D image in the center.

When we reached the top of the plateau we were greeted with the back side of a Road Closed sign, and a wooden barrier. Happily we were able to skirt it. Apparently we had not been blocked at the bottom end because it was not expected that most people would find the old road from that direction. But then most people don’t study the old alignments before they travel!

Without a doubt, the most spectacular scene is the Dry falls in the Grand Coulee. The turn off on State Route 17 for the short drive to Dry Falls, takes you to one of America’s most spectacular sites, important not just for what it is today, but for the amazing forces that created it.

Dry Falls (Map Location 4)

Unlike the wonderful Grand Canyon which was carved over millions of years inch by inch, Dry Falls, several times larger than Niagara, was carved out of solid rock in a short time, geologically speaking, by massive floods out of Lake Missoula in what is now Montana. The now dry falls and the coulee are the product of cataclysmic floods, each relatively short, that geologists didn’t recognize were the cause until fairly recently.

The Eastern Washington scablands and the channels carved by the massive outpourings of Lake Missoula, boggle the mind. They are best seen from the air on a flight in or out of Seattle, because you see the effect of the floods in overview. On the ground, you see deep canyons with high cliffs, and rocks as large as hotels resting in strange places.

I’ll update the post later with more photos and descriptions. It is Thursday morning and I want to keep this as current as possible. Tuesday night we stayed in Davenport, but did not have wi fi. We are in Colfax today on the 1915 Yellowstone Trail route. We will take the old road out of Colfax and head for Walla Walla, crossing the Snake River at what was the Central Ferry in Yellowstone Trail days, but is now a bridge.

BTW, we spotted the old Yellowstone Trail marker yesterday at Rosilia on the abandoned Milwaukee Railroad Bridge. It also looks like John and Alice have been here recently as each museum has their book and 1919 guide for sale. Long live the Yellowstone! (Note: I bought the last guide at the Lincoln County Museum, better restock them!)

More later. For now we are trying to Keep the Show on the Road! Edited May 30, 2007 by Keep the Show on the Road!

[BabyBoomerBob]

We left Waterville and David and Amy at the Hotel Tuesday headed east on US 2, AKA the 1925 Yellowstone Trail, the National Parks Highway, and the Sunset Highway, A wealth of old roads! Before we left, David gave me a recent book describing a trip along the National Parks Highway in 1919, as well as a copy of an original 1925 map of Washington I didn’t have in my collection. I gave them copies of half a dozen 1917-1920 strip maps of the old road produced by the Automobile Club of Western Washington.

 

We backtracked a couple of miles to photograph a picturesque Dr Pierces sign visible from US 2 as you come into Waterville from the west.

 

 

The hamlet of Douglas, a few miles east of Waterville was on the Yellowstone. The Douglas General store was closed, but it looked like only a seasonal thing. I certainly hope so, as it is a special stop on the old trail.

 

There isn’t a lot to stop for between Douglas and Moses Coulee. Fifteen Million years ago 64000 square miles of the northwest was covered with layer upon layer of lava. The Missoula Floods swept the surface clear. Some of the lava layers are exposed in the Moses Coulee, a deep gash miles long and a couple of miles wide that runs through the Waterville plateau.

 

The Moses Coulee was cut by the outflow and floods of ice age lakes Spokane and Columbia and the Waterville plateau was scoured by the famed Missoula Floods that occurred when a huge ice dam near Missoula, Montana broke repeatedly over eons and released the water of Lake Missoula.

 

 

The old highway snaked up the side of the Coulee on the only roadbed possible in days when horses pulled the road making equipment. US 2 now climbs out of the coulee on a massive fill and cut, probably viable from the moon with binoculars!

 

I had studied the route of the old Yellowstone Trail using Delorme and Google Earth, but you never really know whether you can travel it in a little sedan until you are on the ground. At the very bottom of the Coulee we picked up a dirt road that took us perhaps a quarter mile through sagebrush and rock. Then in from the right swung the old pavement, complete with the old white line.

 

Dodging the sagebrush that had encroached from the sides making it a one laner, we started up the old grade. Halfway up we found an old sign still standing, advertising a long gone bank in Coulee City, and the remains of a rusting car beside the road

 

The road wound up the edge of the Coulee with magnificent views down the canyon. The lack of any kind of guard rail suggested that the road may have been abandoned some time ago. There was an unguarded several hundred foot drop off the edge.

 

 

Looking south down the Coulee from the old road. You can see the massive fill of the new road in the distance.

 

To view in 3D, stare at the two images and slowly cross your eyes until you get a third 3D image in the center.

When we reached the top of the plateau we were greeted with the back side of a Road Closed sign, and a wooden barrier. Happily we were able to skirt it. Apparently we had not been blocked at the bottom end because it was not expected that most people would find the old road from that direction. But then most people don’t study the old alignments before they travel!

 

Without a doubt, the most spectacular scene is the Dry falls in the Grand Coulee. The turn off on State Route 17 for the short drive to Dry Falls, takes you to one of America’s most spectacular sites, important not just for what it is today, but for the amazing forces that created it.

 

 

Unlike the wonderful Grand Canyon which was carved over millions of years inch by inch, Dry Falls, several times larger than Niagara, was carved out of solid rock in a few weeks. Now I cheated there a little in my boosterism of Yellowstone Trail sights. The few weeks was the duration of a flood from the great Lake Missoula. But the floods recurred perhaps 20 times, no one knows. But the truth is that this massive falls and the canyon are the product of cataclysmic floods, each relatively short, that geologists didn’t recognize were the cause until fairly recently.

 

The Eastern Washington scablands and the channels carved by the massive outpourings of Lake Missoula, boggle the mind. They are best seen from the air on a flight in or out of Seattle, because you see the effect of the floods in overview. On the ground, you see deep canyons with high cliffs, and rocks as large as hotels resting in strange places.

 

I’ll update the post later with more photos and descriptions. It is Thursday morning and I want to keep this as current as possible. Tuesday night we stayed in Davenport, but did not have wi fi. We are in Colfax today on the 1915 Yellowstone Trail route. We will take the old road out of Colfax and head for Walla Walla, crossing the Snake River at what was the Central Ferry in Yellowstone Trail days, but is now a bridge.

 

BTW, we spotted the old Yellowstone Trail marker yesterday at Rosilia on the abandoned Milwaukee Railroad Bridge. It also looks like John and Alice have been here recently as each museum has their book and 1919 guide for sale. Long live the Yellowstone! (Note: I bought the last guide at the Lincoln County Museum, better restock them!)

 

More later. For now we are trying to Keep the Show on the Road!

 

 

That was one spectacular writeup! One of these days I hope to explore the Scablands at some length. But for now, looks like I'll have to stick closer to home:) Thanks for sharing!

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

That was one spectacular writeup! One of these days I hope to explore the Scablands at some length. But for now, looks like I'll have to stick closer to home:) Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Thanks for the kind comment!

 

Eastern Washington is unique in the world for the scablands. You probably are far more knowledgable on the subject than I am, but there are some great books to read before you visit. They add greatly to the understanding and enjoyment of what you see.

 

When I was at Dry Falls a fellow was explaining to two of his passengers that a river cut Dry Falls. Some River! Too bad to be standing right there and so little appreciate the events that shaped what he was seeing. I simply suggested he might enjoy the displays at the visitor's center, but he drove off having no idea what he had seen.

 

It is truly astounding to see the consequences of those massive floods, from the air or on the ground.

 

Thanks again for your interest. It helps Keep the Show on the Road!

Edited May 24, 2007 by Keep the Show on the Road!