A Ski Trip to the Home of the Floods
Part 2, A Journey of Imagination, By Susan Langsley
It was my 8-year old son’s idea to go on a ski trip to Whitefish, MT. We were all so happy he came up with the idea, and it seemed like a good one, so we headed out there to make his dreams come true.
On the way and the whole time we were there the surrounding geology practically screamed at me of something awesome in the past. Something practically incomprehensible, but it really happened. We were in Glacial Lake Missoula territory.
The view from the top of the ski area looks out on a valley that must have been a whopper of a lake. Can you imagine Whitefish Valley filled with water? Possibly an extension of Flathead lake, which is already so big? It’s easy to do.
On the drive to or away along the Clark Fork River, I scan for clues. All I can see are the hills and old lake lines, scoured and smooth. Driving through it feels like scuba-diving out of time.
On the way home, we drive West through the reservation. When we hit the mountains, it feels like we’re in a coulee. The two-lane highway is built right down the middle of an ancient coulee. I feel the energy of a lot of water rushing through. Where did it go? I want to spend the rest of my life finding out!
On a roundabout way home we stop at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. There in the Pleistocene exhibit is a painting of a wooly mammoth running from a thundering giant flood. Wow! Do you suppose it really happened like that?
The kids start to think I’m a little nust talking about Ice Age Floods all the time. But then they watch the PBS Special “Mega Floods” DVD I ordered. Giant ripples, lake lines above Missoula, the Columbia Gorge: They are awed, but it’s the awe of watching a TV show, not really like discovering the field evidence. Still that’s a start.
I search around a bit and find Bruce Bjornstad’s book “On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods”. YES! A kindred spirit! He has found ice age hikes in places I hadn’t heard of before. Where is Dry Falls? Where is Potholes State Park? Where is Zillah? These places are calling out to me! While the rest of the families on our cul-de-sac are heading to Europe for summer vacations, I want to go camping in Vantage, Washington.
There is another person who has posted quite a bit of Ice Age Flood Geology on YouTube and he’s a CWU professor. Timidly, I write to Nick Zentner to inquire about attending lectures on Ice Age Floods. Apparently, there is still A LOT of interest in Ice Age Floods, and I join the Ice Age Floods Institute. A few days later, I have my biography of J Harlan Bretz, “Bretz’s Flood” by John Soennichsen, in hand, and I am driving by myself across the whole state of Washington to see an Ice Age Flood lecture in in Richland. The sense of destiny is palpable.