Down To Earth Take A Drive Across Eastern Washington’S Midsection And You’Ll See Unique Scenery Created By Geological Upheaval

FOR THE RECORD: 9-8-99 Phone numbers incorrect: The telephone number for the Alma Cozy Motel in Coulee City is (509) 632-5703 and for the Coulee City Chamber of Commerce it’s (509) 632-5043. Those numbers were wrong in a story about a tour of Eastern Washington’s scablands in Sunday’s Fall Travel Guide.

Most attempts to explain geology, especially on roadside signs, include a sentence that begins, “About 20 million years ago…”

Can’t they pin it down better than that?

Geologists also love to use the word “eon,” which Webster’s defines as “an indefinitely long period of time.”

My definition has always been: “the length of the average geology lesson.”

But even I can’t deny the evidence that appears before my eyes as we drive along state Highways 155 and 17 between Electric City and Soap Lake. Here is a scene throbbing with action, something sorely lacking on most geology road trips.

OK, maybe “throbbing” is an overstatement, but for geology, this is major excitement.

As we drive the 30 miles from Electric City to Coulee City, majestic coulee rims rise overhead like the towers of a castle. “Coulee” is as common a word in some parts of the United States and Canada as “hill” is in others. The Dictionary of Geological Terms defines coulee as a “steep-sided gulch.” I hate to argue with the experts, but that doesn’t do justice to this 800-foot-deep gouge called the Grand Coulee.

A short, steep hike just south of Electric City at Steamboat Rock State Park gives visitors time to ponder the possible origins of the Grand Coulee. It takes about one-billionth of an eon (or an hour-and-a-half) to climb Steamboat Rock for a panoramic look at Banks Lake and the Grand Coulee. The walk showcases one of the most under appreciated vistas in the country.

Too bad this startling landscape happens to occur in the over-endowed Pacific Northwest. The drop-dead gorgeous canyons are overshadowed by the sexy volcanoes and rainforests to the west and endless evergreen wildernesses to the east.

The scenery has not always been slighted, however. Alexander Ross, an early fur trader, called the coulees “chasms” and said they were among the most “romantic, picturesque and marvelously formed” scenery in the West. He described “columns, pillars, battlements, turrets, and steps upon steps, in every variety of shade and color.”

Those colors - a variety of oranges, reds and yellows - look like splashed-on paint, but they come from lichens growing on the black basalt rock of the canyon walls.

Northrup Canyon, north of the Steamboat Rock State Park main turnoff, showcases the entire pallet. To find the canyon, turn east off the highway onto the dirt road that is opposite the Steamboat Rock Rest Area Boat Launch turnoff. The road ends at the parking area for hikers.

A short stroll brings you into the only forest in Grant County. A longer walk (several hours in and back) leads to isolated Northrup Lake.

The remains of a well-engineered stagecoach road are visible from the trail, which also meanders past several historic buildings. The old houses and barns once belonged to the original homesteaders for whom the canyon is named. Fall is the best time to explore here, since the cooler temperatures discourage the mosquito swarms.

I asked my daughter how she thought Steamboat Rock and the rest of the coulee came about, and she conjectured a volcano. She was partly right. The mystery of Steamboat Rock is unveiled 30 miles south at Dry Falls Interpretive Center. True, the entire region is overlaid with basalt lava layers, but all that happened millions of years ago. A mere 13,000 years ago, according to visitor center displays and video presentations, a series of cataclysmic floods clawed out the scablands found in Eastern Washington, forming the Grand Coulee and a waterfall, Dry Falls, that would have dwarfed Niagara Falls.

The floods, which started when an ice dam near modern-day Missoula fractured, coursed at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour and at a volume equaling the combined flow of all the rivers of the world - times 10! Steamboat Rock somehow resisted, but much of the rock around it was washed to Portland and beyond.

Ten miles further south, past a series of popular pothole lakes, another short hike takes visitors into some of the caves that were formed when the floodwaters plucked pieces of basalt out like a spoon scooping melon balls. The Lake Lenore Caves aren’t “caves” in the underground sense; they are just large indents in the coulee walls.

They are bigger than they look, however. When I sat at the back of one, looking out across the coulee floor to the ramparts on the other side, I felt just like I did sitting in similar caves along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. I felt dwarfed, privileged and curious about the people who came before me.

Like the Grand Canyon shelters, these caves turned out to be fortuitous for prehistoric people who used them as temporary shelter, kind of like motels. Maybe they were even on their way to the healing waters of Soap Lake, which was our next stop.

The great falls now known as Dry Falls actually started at Soap Lake, where less resistant basalt layers were eroded away by the tremendous power of the floods. The falls retreated upstream, as erosion did its work, to the present site.

Soap Lake is the last of a series of pothole lakes that start at Dry Falls and ribbon down the coulee. This particular one is fed only by surrounding groundwater and has no outlet, hence its salty, soapy, mineral nature. People from ages past to present have found its waters soothing and even therapeutic.

As we wade in, I think of the 16 invisible minerals swirling around my legs - leached from the surrounding rocks. I’ve avoided geology all these years, and now, I’m immersed in it. Baptized, and a true believer.

This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO THE SCABLAND LOOP

This loop makes a great fall Scabland drive: from Spokane take State Route 2 to Wilbur, then SR 174 to Electric City. Head south on SR 155 and SR 17 to Soap Lake. From Soap Lake, loop back on SR 28 through Odessa to Davenport.

Dry Falls State Park Interpretive Center, (509) 632-5583, is seven miles southwest of Coulee City on SR 17. You can visit the falls anytime; the center is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily May through September. Free admission.

Lodging: the lodging in Coulee City and along the coulee is pretty basic, but inexpensive. The Ala Cozy Motel starts at $45/night, (509) 632-8602. Sun Lakes State Park has cabins and is open through October, $55/night, (509) 632-5291. For more lodging ideas, contact the Coulee City Chamber of Commerce at (509) 632-5713.

The nicest lodging around is found in Soap Lake, at the Inn at Soap Lake. Each room has a special mineral bath, and family cottages with kitchen are available. Two people, though September, $65/night. In October, $55/night. (509) 246-1132. For more Soap Lake Ideas Call The Chamber Of Commerce At (509) 246-1821.

- Kristi G. Streiffert

Map: Scablands Loop