Geology has always interested me but I didn’t pursue it because life led me in a different direction, and I got a business degree at the U of WA.
In the ’90’s, my wife and I often came over to the Gorge Amphitheater for concerts, and on the way home from a James Taylor concert one day, along Highway 28, we saw a view of the Columbia we couldn’t resist. We had no idea what the cliffs and Crescent Bar were all about. Just that it was beautiful, and there were no houses along the cliff taking advantage of that view! We bought the best acre, built a house, and at the Quincy Farmer Consumer Awareness Days fall festival in 2000, met Charlie Mason who was giving geology tours for the festival. And we were hooked!
We became founding members and officers of the Wenatchee Valley Erratics, the first chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute. I learned everything I could from Charlie, shared his enthusiasm, and eventually took over many of his tours. We now share that enthusiasm with as many as we can. We’ve even had an international group for dinner in 2016 who were researching the Drumheller Channels for the landing of the 2020 Mars Landrover for NASA!
And we still wake up to that beautiful view of the Columbia River, basalt cliffs, and the West Bar Giant Current Ripples every morning. Only NOW we know what they are!