Palouse Falls, 185 feet high, is a trickle compared to the Pleistocene glacial floods that ripped out this gorge of the Palouse River some 12,000 years ago. All the terrain to the topmost rim shown here was inundated with another 100 feet of racing water above that.
This cataclysmic event altered the landscape of Eastern Washington and sculpted the Columbia River Gorge as it charged to meet the Pacific Ocean where it cut a trench on the sea floor.
A visit to Palouse Falls State Park is a highlight each May and October, when the Sea Birdand Sea Lion follow in the wake of Lewis and Clark along the Snake and Columbia rivers.
