The Missoula Ice Age Floods Trip, August 29th

On Saturday, August 29th, I went on a field trip of the Columbia River Gorge Chapter of Ice Age Floods Institute from Mosier to Arlington, Oregon. We met at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Hood River.

I rode the shotgun seat with the group leader, Terry Hurd, driving and a geologist in the rather small back seat. The others were in two cars. One of the cars was a Prius which I later “ruined” according to the car owner – a man with control issues -- by removing the car ignition key after the car had been stopped about 5-10 minutes. The husband and wife were arguing about removing the ignition key as it was ringing. She wanted to sit in the back seat in the shade with the door open to catch the breezes while he went for a hike with the others. I just got tired of listening to them so I removed the ignition key and, of course, the ringing stopped. He was furious!!

We had planned to stop to view the Ice Age Flood Glacial Erratic in the midst of the ODOT gravel pit but the road was closed because of the “Microwave fire” (I went back a couple days later past “Road Closed Ahead” sign and saw the erratic). The 6'x8'x12' erratic is quartz monzonite with large 1/4" to 2" crystals.

We traveled east on the Historic Columbia River Highway (HCRH) (Hwy 30) to Rowena Crest. Looking across the Columbia River to the Washington side of the Gorge, you can see that where the land was stripped by the floods below about 950 ft. elevation. A large eddy bar underlies most of the town of Lyle. Far below us near the river we could see a kolk lake and several Mima mounds.

We took Hwy 197 briefly at The Dalles. We saw both pillow and columnar basalt at a road cut. We traveled east on Fifteen Mile Road, turning left on Old Moody Road. I was told where I would find the Pathfinder Marker (Virtual Geocache) further up Fifteen Mile Road. We stopped at couple overlooks including Celilo Falls Overlook. Before the gates closed at The Dalles Dam in 1956, one had a magnificent view of the roaring Celilo Falls from here. The Dalles Dam drowned Five Mile Rapids and Celilo Falls. We stopped at Heritage Landing at the Deschutes River for the restrooms which left a LOT to be desired.

We got lunch at Subway to take with us. Traveled on I-84 past the John Day Dam to Exit 123 where we ascended Philippi Canyon. We had lunch at a winery – Wheatridge in the Nook. I had a glass of Chardonnay with my Subway sandwich. We saw a small glacial flood erratic at about 1060 ft. elevation and several geologic features in Blalock Canyon and Alkali Canyon. We stopped in Arlington for restrooms. We entered Interstate 84 westbound, arriving back in Hood River late about 5:30PM.