- Columbia River (Wikipedia)
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: Wimahl or Wimal; Sahaptin: Nch’i-Wàna or Nchi wana; Sinixt dialect swah’netk’qhu) is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river forms in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 miles (2,000 kilometers) long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven states of the United States and one Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by volume, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any North American river entering the Pacific. The Columbia has the 36th greatest discharge of any river in the world.
Columbia River Basalt Group map shows main regions of basalt exposure in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada, USA. (usgs.gov)- Methow River
Pony toward Vantage Bridge
Sunrise over the Columbia- The Columbia begins its 1,243-mile (2,000 km) journey in the southern Rocky Mountain Trench in British Columbia (BC).
- The periodic rupturing of ice dams at Glacial Lake Missoula resulted in the Missoula Floods, with discharges exceeding the combined flow of all the other rivers in the world, dozens of times over thousands of years.
- Vantage Bridge
- Vantage, Washington
Wanapum Viewpoint on I-90 overlooking the Columbia River
Watch for rattlesnakes on the way to The Gorge- Whitman County is part of the Palouse, a wide and rolling prairie-like region of the middle Columbia basin.
eastbound on Interstate 90
