Ice Age Floods

Note: this trip is full and a wait list is in effect

Sandhill Cranes with chicks - Jim Cruce

Fourteen thousand years ago (or so) an enormous lake in western Montana (Glacial Lake Missoula) suddenly drained when the ice dam holding it back failed. The amount of water released all at once is thought to be equal to 10 times the flow of all the rivers in the world! Where would it go but to the Pacific Ocean? And how would it get there but by traveling cross-country? As it did it carved its own path in places and followed established drainage's large enough to contain it in other places. And it happened over and over again for a period of thousands of years!

The geologic story of these great floods is amazing and so is the human story behind their discovery. In 1923 a geologist named J Harlen Bretz first proposed a theory of catastrophic flooding as the only explanation for the wide array of landscape features he observed in eastern Washington and elsewhere along the path of the floods. It wasn’t until over forty years later that his theory was accepted by his peers.

We’ll visit key locations along the routes of the floods to see and learn to recognize the marks they left behind; we’ll learn why Bretz’s theories were seen as outlandish at first and witness firsthand the evidence that tipped the scale of scientific thought in his favor. We’ll also make plenty of time for hiking, botanizing and birdwatching. April is a beautiful time of year to be out and about!

Register: Contact Steve Engel at 971-222-6119 or sengel@audubonportland.org to register

Trip Fee: $875 members / $1075 non-members

Group Size: 7 - 14 participants

Leader: Steve Engel

Fee includes 5 nights lodging based on double-occupancy, all meals except dinners, all ground transportation, entry fees and the services of your leader(s)