Harney Basin and High Desert Lakes

Human coprolites, a notch in a glacier-carved gorge, and a refuge for two-thirds of Pacific waterfowl

There are several distinct areas of this shrub-steppe ecoregion of the Columbia Plateau. For the purposes of this discussion, the Snake-Columbia shrub-steppe ecoregion is subdivided into four sections, based on biological or geographic criteria. The first and second areas were discussed in Parts I and II. The third area is the Harney Basin and High Desert Lakes area, distinguished by internal drainage but also having lava plains. This area includes Steens Mountain and Harney Basin in Oregon, both areas characterized by volcanic activity and marked by numerous unusual volcanic features. The vast sagebrush steppe is punctuated by the partly forested Steens Mountains; glacial lake basins, now mostly dry; wetlands along the Malheur and Silvies River, Warner Basin, Honey Lake, and Lake Abert; and barren playas surrounding Summer Lake, Silver Lake, and the Alvord Desert. The wetlands and lakes are Important Bird Areas (IBAs) for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds.

One of the biggest and most intense archeological disputes involves the timing of the first human migration into North America and South America. Evidence for settlement up to 30,000 years ago has been presented, but it is in dispute. The most widely accepted dates for occupation relate to the Clovis complex, which is dated about 11,000 years before present (BP). The Paisley Caves (site 1), Oregon (N42˚46’ W120˚33’) have the oldest directly dated human remains in the Western Hemisphere, with initial human occupation at least 12,300 BP (Jenkins et al. 2012; Gilbert et al. 2008). The direct dating is from human DNA, and the DNA is from 65 coprolites which were left in caves on the shore of an ice age lake, which is today Summer Lake in Oregon. The caves contain Western Stemmed projectile points, which are considered by archaeologists to be the oldest New World lithic technology. They are distinct from the Clovis points, and based on dating at the Paisley Caves, are believed to overlap or precede Clovis technology. The conditions in the caves are believed to be near-ideal for preservation, with extremely dry conditions sheltered from moisture. Deposits in the caves include threads of sinew and plant fibers, basketry, rope, and wooden pegs, as well as animal bones and feces.

Fossil Lake (2), Oregon (N43˚20’ W120˚30’), is one of the most significant sites for Pleistocene-age fossils, perhaps rivaling Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles. Martin et al. (2005) found that fossil deposits ranged in age from more than 646,000 years ago to 23,000 years ago.

The National Landscape Conservation Systemin the Harney Basin is represented by the Black Rock Desert and Steens Mountain areas; in addition, National Wilderness Preservation System areas are considered part of the NLCS and are described separately. Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area (NCA), Nevada, is known mostly for the Burning Man Festival, held in the Black Rock Desert Playa. However, this 800,000-acre area preserves 120 miles of remnants of historic trails to California and Oregon. From Rye Patch Reservoir on the east, the Applegate Trail extends west to Willow Springs, Antelope Pass, Kamma Pass, and Rabbithole Spring, where the Nobles Trail heads southwest. The Applegate Trail continues west to Black Rock Springs, Double Hot Springs, Lassen/Clapper Burial Site, and Fly Canyon Wagon Slide to High Rock Canyon. Other features are the Hanging Rock Petrified Forest, site 3 on the map (N41˚30’ W119˚28’) and Soldier Meadows, located near High Rock Canyon. Soldier Meadows is a complex of hot springs harboring desert dace, four endemic springsnails, and basalt cinquefoil. The ten wilderness areas are Black Rock Desert, Calico Mountains, East Fork High Rock Canyon, High Rock Canyon, High Rock Lake, Little High Rock Canyon, North Black Rock Range, North Jackson Mountains, Pahute Peak, and South Jackson Mountains.

Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area(CMPA), Oregon, is 496,000 acres, including Steens Mountain, the largest fault block north of the Great Basin rising one mile above the Alvord Desert to the east. The highest point of Steens Mountain, 9,700 feet (N42˚38’ W118˚35’) is accessible by a one-mile hike. The Donner und Blitzen River and all its tributaries in the Steens Mountain CMPA are designated Wild Rivers, for a total of 87.5 miles. In addition, Kiger and Wildhorse Creeks and their tributaries add another 14 river miles of Wild Rivers. There are four immense glacier-carved U-shaped gorges along Kiger Creek, Little Blitzen, Big Indian, and Wildhorse creeks, all of which have been designated wild rivers. A distinctive notch (site 4) in the east ridge of Kiger Gorge (N42˚44’ W118˚33’) is from a tributary glacier along Mann Creek Canyon. The area is an IBA for black rosy-finch and sage grouse. The Kiger Wild Horse Management Area (site 5) (N42˚57’ W118˚36’) is the home of 50 to 80 horses descended from the original Spanish horses brought to North America. The Blitzen River Trail extends from Page Campground upstream to Fish Creek and is part of the Desert Trail. Big Indian Gorge Trail and Little Blitzen Gorge Trails both extend eight miles from the South Steens Campground to the heads of glaciated valleys. A trail to Wildhorse Lake (N42˚38’ W118˚35’)starts at the road to Steens Mountain high point off of Steens South Loop Road. The Riddle Brothers Ranch (N42˚41’ W118˚46’) is on the Little Blitzen River and preserves rural Oregon ranch life as it was in the early 1900s. About 170,000 acres of the NCA is also included in the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.

Columbia Basin

Snake-Columbia Shrub-Steppe, Part IV, Columbia Basin
Floods of lava, floods of the Ice Age, and dry waterfalls
There are several distinct areas of this shrub-steppe ecoregion of the Columbia Plateau (NA 1309). For the purposes of this discussion, the ecoregion is subdivided into four sections, based on biological or geographic criteria.
The fourth area, the Columbia Basin, is the desert along the Columbia River in northern Oregon and central Washington. It is underlain by volcanic Columbia River basalts, but the area is most notable for the Ice Age floods that ranged from one million years ago to 13,000 years ago. In the Rocky Mountains to the east, ice dams formed and failed many times, releasing walls of water that surged southwest and flooded the area several hundred feet deep. The rocky barren lands created by the scouring of the floodwaters are known today as scablands (Montgomery 2012). Today there are geologic features throughout the Columbia River portion of the Snake-Columbia shrub-steppe that provide evidence of these floods. The floods were apparently carrying icebergs, since glacial erratics are scattered around places where the water was temporarily constricted. Wallula Gap (1) National Natural Landmark (NNL) is a two-km-wide constriction in the Columbia River, behind which water backed up during the catastrophic Lake Missoula floods 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, creating temporary Lake Lewis until the water drained, probably a week or so. Twice as much water backed up behind Wallula Gap as could pass through. Tributary rivers such as the Yakima and Walla Walla reversed flow as water surged up them. The Yakima River near Benton City has reverse flow badlands where there were extra scouring and potholes at a restriction to water heading the reverse direction. It is believed that Lake Missoula drained dozens of times, creating temporary floods and a temporary lake each time.
The Columbia River basalts are a remnant of an earlier event, the eruption of basalts on the edge of the North American continent. Typically, basalts are formed in the oceans at the locations where plates are spreading apart. However, there are also eruptions in the continental crust in a few places, forming major continental basalt plateaus. The 200,000-square kilometer area of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho along the Columbia and Snake Rivers is one such area. The eruption of basalts formed the Columbia Plateau between 17 million and 6 million years ago. The source of the eruptions was the present-day junction of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, from which lava flowed and filled the area to the north and west, from Spokane to the Cascades and down the Columbia River to Portland. One flow, known as the Roza flow, moved 300 km in a matter of days from eastern Washington to the Dalles area. According to Hooper (1982), a lava front about 30 m high, over 100 km wide, and at a temperature of 1100˚C, advanced at a rate of five km per hour. One of the outcomes of catastrophic events like this was the preservation of sites like the Gingko Petrified Forest State Park (2), a NNL.
There is one National Historic Landmark in the Columbia Basin shrub-steppe. The B Reactor (3), Department of Energy, Washington (N46˚38’ W119˚39’), was the first production-scale nuclear reactor, built in 1943 to 1944, provided plutonium for the Trinity Test in New Mexico, the first nuclear detonation, and the “Fat Man,” the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Following the demonstration of a chain reaction at the University of Chicago in 1942, the Manhattan Project began. A site at Hanford was chosen to construct a 250-MW reactor. The B Reactor is a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, National Civil Engineering Landmark, and Nuclear Historic Landmark.
The National Natural Landmarks of the Columbia Basin shrub-steppe tend to be related to the ice age floods; however, there is one commemorating a unique fossil deposit and another at a water gap of unusual relief.
Drumheller Channels (4), Columbia National Wildlife Refuge and Goose Lakes Unit of Columbia Wildlife Area, Washington (N46˚59’ W119˚12’) is an erosional landscape characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep-sided hills surrounded by braided channels. Between 8,000and 12,000 years ago, glacial Lake Missoula was periodically dammed by ice, then the ice dam broke dozens of times, creating massive floods that scoured the Columbia River drainage.
Grand Coulee (5), Washington is located between Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River and Soap Lake. This 50-mile-long ice age flood channel was carved by the periodic floods originating from Lake Missoula. Perhaps a highlight of the steep-sided channel is the dramatic Dry Falls (N47˚36’ W119˚21’), a 400-foot dry waterfall is 3.5 miles wide, now in Sun Lakes/Dry Falls State Park. Also occupying Grand Coulee upstream of Dry Falls is Banks Lake/Dry Falls Dam, a Bureau of Reclamation irrigation storage facility within the Columbia Project. Lower Grand Coulee is included in the Sun Lakes Unit of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area.
Moses Coulee Great Gravel Bar (6), Grant County Public Utility District, Washington (N47˚17’ W120˚5’) was created during the first of the Lake Missoula floods, when the Columbia River surged down Moses Coulee. Later an ice lobe blocked this channel, and all later floods used Grand Coulee. Floods traversing Moses Coulee deposited a massive mile-wide, 400-foot deep gravel bar where it confluenced with the Columbia River. The terminus of the coulee is on Route 28 between Rock Island and Quincy. The gravel bar deposit can be viewed from across the river from Yo-Yo Rock Boat Launch of the Grant County Public Utility District on Wanapum Lake. Public access to the shoreline is available at the Apricot Orchard shoreline access site on Wanapum Lake on Route 28. The entirety of Moses Coulee and the Waterville Plateau to the north is an Important Bird Area (IBA) for greater sage grouse, sage sparrow, and sage thrasher.
Wallula Gap (1), Lake Wallula/ McNary Lock and Dam, Washington (N46˚3’ W118˚56’) is also an ice age flood site. During the Lake Missoula floods, this area on the Columbia River just south of the confluence with the Walla Walla River served as a large-scale hydraulic constriction. Because all the water could not overtop the ridge here, water backed up until the area could drain.
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park (2), Washington (N46˚57’ W120˚0’) is on I-90 at the Columbia River/Lake Wanapum crossing. This ancient fossil bed contains thousands of logs of Miocene age (15 million years ago) which were entombed in basalt lava flows. Ginkgo, redwood, Douglas-fir, and deciduous trees were growing in the forest. This is also an ice-age flood carved landscape; also present are occasional glacial erratics that rode on ice floes during the floods.
Umtanum Ridge Water Gap (7), Wenas Wildlife Area and BLM, Washington (N46˚48’ W120˚27’) is where the Yakima River goes through Umtanum Ridge. The Yakima River forms the eastern edge of the 105,000-acre Wenas Wildlife Area. Umtanum Ridge rises to 3,000 feet less than one mile from the Yakima River, where the elevation is 1,200 feet. On the north side of the ridge there are also cliffs along Untanum Creek, which has a hiking trail. This precipitous topography was formed as the Yakima River, which predated the ridge building, cut through the ridge as it was rising. To the north of Umtanum Ridge is Manastash Ridge, which has a similar water gap and topographic extremes. State Route 821 follows the river through Yakima River Canyon and the two water gaps between Ellensburg and Yakima. Between the two ridges is Umtanum Creek Valley, which is an IBA. The Roza Diversion Dam is located in the canyon at the water gap.