‘Nick From Home’ Livestream #52 - Frenchman Coulee

well good evening everybody welcome to Frenchmen are we functional d Spolsky says yes okay we've got a little bit going here I let me just play here for just a second no this will have to do for now I'm kind of well there's also all sorts of things to say so first things first are we doing okay there's a slight breeze but you're gonna have to deal with that I'm afraid I can't walk around with a cardboard box around the phone so Judy says we're 5x5 I don't really understand how much of a delay we have O'Russell good excellent audio and visual that's terrific to hear good wonderful oh that you you early birds that's that's our plan no I forgot I don't even have my - my Timex watch clock with me so welcome it is 547 p.m. here in Pacific Time Zone on the west coast of North America and we will begin up by 48 we will begin our program on Frenchman Cooley from Frenchman Cooley at 6:00 p.m. so thank you for joining us this evening this is live stream number 52 I believe and yet this is our first time trying this out in the field so of course I am a little bit antsy about quality about streaming about buffering and before I do a little bit more testing with you let me show you the schedule for the rest of the week so last night we last night we had a session on ice cores from the backyard it was a windy evening Susan Kaspari was our guest her family eventually joined us gorilla man made an appearance turns out gorilla man was a gorilla gorilla woman a gorilla woman and her daughter who drove over from the Seattle area got into the Sasquatch outfit made the appearance in reality the daughter drove the getaway car back out of the Sasquatch outfit back to Seattle it's a two-hour drive each way so thank you for your dedication Sasquatch woman I'm sorry that we called you a gorilla Power Man tonight we're talking about Frenchman Cooley tomorrow night we're talking about saddle mountains not very far away from here by the way saddle mountains in central Washington Saturday morning George Otis Smith Sunday morning what does that say this effect Northwest tectonics that's right okay so I got a little bit of breeze I'm dealing with some guns spare rocks available you want to look out the back quick so you're looking at Agatha tower which is a popular one of many popular climbing routes I'm gonna save that I'm gonna save the good stuff assuming we're still streaming after the top of the hour so I don't want to give away the good stuff I know you'll I know you'll stick with us let's see what do else do I want to try with you so is the audio any different than what we've had in the front porch and in the back well in the back yard I mean I'm I'm pretty much as close to the pretty but similar distance I think from you guys so how is the audio Jason says the audio is good Jason you're not far away up there in Wenatchee yeah you're gonna hear a little bit of wind I'm sorry it's a field trip okay it's it's about as calm as we get out here I've got the place pretty much to myself there's a couple climbers over there met a couple folks down in the parking lot kind of tucked away behind this rock tower so I'm not going to be too sympathetic if you hear a little bit of wind but I guess I asked how the how that sound is right so I'm sorry so you used a little bit of wind but for the most part we're good sound wise and as soon as sorry I thought I maybe would do this first part with program I'm very loose tonight again by the way as you might have to expect thought maybe I do stuff right by the fan but the van is down low by the road and there was cycle two bars and then even one bar and I was all despondent I'm like is this even gonna work so I walked ten minutes up here and it felt like I got that third bar [Music] quality with with three bar oh it's freezing a little bit Susan is everybody having a little bit of buffering I'm gonna hold off because this is quite important here so it is okay let me ask it differently how is the video quality different than the backyard same that's great news no different that's great news that's great news now we are going to take a little walk and this this whole that's behind us here I know that's a problem I've had students out here before and they all so if we get into that if we get the base of that wall we're gonna lose the same I guess I'll share that with everybody at the top of the hour so I'll try to stay out of that hole but we are gonna walk and amen we might lose each other for a while but I'm a pro at that how many of these live streams have we had a temporary halt or a complete halt quite a bit I don't know less than six or seven I guess but I feel experienced enough that I think we're okay now we still have five minutes can I'm gonna try to control your comments here I can do that oh wow okay so I obviously don't have my laptop and so I when we get to some live Q&A which I hope we can do up on the top I can see I can only see about two or three comments at a time but I can scroll I think up on top it'll be great the wind might be up a little bit but I have no problem I'm confident that our streaming will be good up on top and you'll just have to wait to see what I mean by up on top Joint Base lewis-mcchord I'm I'm hip to you now Jeremy okay let me let me I just play a little bit more cuz it looks like so you tell me if you have any buffering stuff when I start turning this camera around please oh yeah I was gonna practice zooming I I got some help with the zoom and I'm pretty confident I can't zoom when I'm live-streaming I can zoom when I'm do using my regular video camera on the phone oh sorry Patrick looking into the Sun I have enough experience with with recording out the field I've learned from the camera guys over the years I know kind of how to stage a shot I think we got we got visitors hiding in the bushes literally broke the ice by saying you gotta love it so that's the that's the cult password we might do this so I can't zoom in and out so I've got to frame this we've got three minutes right okay play with this year just like in the backyard we need a little blue sky don't we I've got this little I got the guy the gizmo on a tripod I got the tripod like with a towel draped around the legs and then rocks anchoring it so it's gonna take you a few minutes to get out get out of here once we start moving Canyon revs burgers can you tell me if that's a canyon plural I got two minutes thanks for joining us we'll get started in just a sec let me forget my hammer okay [Music] [Music] good evening to you all welcome to Frenchmen in the state of Washington my name is Nick I teach it to college right over there behind you about forty-five minute drive away Kittitas County is over there this is Grant County it's right across the Columbia River to get here and I'm so glad that you're gonna be with us tonight hope that you're willing to play along with this first live stream that we've had from the field this is field this is live stream number 52 but they've all been at my house or in my front porch or in my back yard but we're giving it a try out here in the field so I've been visiting with the folks who are here ahead of time seems like we're doing the best that we can audio and visual wise so let's go ahead and get begin our program we've talked about Frenchmen Cooley a fair amount there's no substitute for being in the field by the way so have you been in the desert that sage smell I'm gonna let you smell right now let me break off some fresh sage for you breathe deep now those divisions that move these places well know that there's no substitute there's no substitute for being you can watch off the video programs you are you can watch all the live streams you want and that's the ultimate goal but since many of us are still locked down and unable to get around our county by the way opened up to Phase two this morning so there's a lot of celebrating in town just making that next step so we're heading in the right direction and I hope things feel rosy in your world is well roses can be based on moment where a feelings okay after that let's get to our content let's go to the whiteboard first of all we'll get you situated you're used to visiting with me in Ellensburg can't really see the phone right now I'm kind of blinded yeah okay so here's my backyard in Ellensburg we talked about the Yakima River coming out of the Cascades and getting south of Ellensburg and doing that crazy meandering story and creating the Yakima River Canyon that's not us I left the house about 4 o'clock this afternoon took me about a half an hour to drive on Interstate 90 over to a little town called Vantage and if it was before 1927 I'd have to wait for the ferry that's from our Bing Crosby geology lecture right and then a bridge was put into 1927 and then that bridge was actually taken out and moved to the Snake River and so now there's a new bridge quote-unquote 1960s vintage and that got me across this major river called the Columbia River that's it and then I climbed and climbed and climbed and then dropped and dropped and dropped to the X and that's where we are right now Frenchmen Coulee USA now that's just to get your bearings let's look at a geologic map now I got stuff scattered everywhere I'm gonna forget half the stuff by the time we move I should tell you actually so my plan just in case we lose each other my plan for the hour is to talk to you here for about I don't know 10 minutes or so just to kind of get you established introduce a few concepts in fact we've talked about the concepts already and past live streams if you're a regular but I want to take a walk with you I've got this gizmo got my backpack I've got my whiteboard I got everything ready to move and I'm telling you this now because I don't know if we'll be in contact for a part of the hike but I know that at the end of the hike up on top we'll have good coverage so ten minutes of me here walking for about I don't know 15 20 minutes talking as we go but pretty much walking most the way maybe I'll even shut my mouth on occasion and just let you enjoy the scenery then we'll definitely talk up on top and I'll point out a couple things I even have a prop in my backpack and then depending on the time and depending I think we'll do some live Q&A up on top and then if we feel like we're still functional I'll probably keep you going in the live stream as we come back down to this point and yeah so I'm thinking an hour-ish hopefully you'll be wanting to join us the whole way you probably anxious to go right now but I feel like it's important to lay out a couple of things for newbies to the concept or newbies to the coulee in particular here's an old geologic map that I love using oh boy I'm flying blind now okay hopefully you can see this so Ellensburg is in this yellow that's a bunch of alluvial material river rocks that filled the valley long ago I followed this old road actually I didn't interstate 90 isn't even on this map that's amazing so these are the old roads from 1960 before they put in the freeway and my point is you see this pattern here that's kind of orange with a bunch of red fees that's the basalt lava rock that you see behind us here that's the basalt that's the German chocolate cake in Frenchman coulis if I can get out of my own shadow is one of these basalt lava rock notches and the other one is called ancient Lakes that's what locals call it is technically called potholes Coulee so potholes Coulee and Frenchmen Coulee are both places where the ice age floods came from the east and carved major waterfalls waterfalls we're going to see a waterfall today no we are not because this place was a waterfall during the Ice Age and during the Missoula floods it's dry now this is a desert we might even see a rattlesnake or two you never know let me give you a specific map to show where we are standing in where we are headed with our little hike [Applause] I'm gonna pause and ask are we okay are we are we still dreaming okay pause in the comments five by five says Andrew okay okie dokie great okay good thank you so let's see if I can work off the reflection in my camera face ok so this is the so look at how close interstate 90 Hale you're gonna hurl down alright let's see if this works a little better for my handouts for you this works better for me maybe for you too so this is interstate 90 and I don't know how many millions of people zip by this place every day every hour and have no idea this is here it's not a major tourist destination and I'm kind of thankful for that selfishly this place is known among the rock climbing community there's rock climbers over there right now it's not among geologists and burgers and native plasty poland' rattlesnake research people there's some dens here but otherwise it's a low-key spot and we are grateful for that so you are yeah so you see that at number three with or with a with a red circle around it that's that's our goal for our little hike and currently we are north of that but I want you mainly to notice that there are two major canyons here and look at their shape look at this horseshoe shape to the cliffs and how they open up to the Columbia River is it clear to you where the waterfalls are now there was a waterfall here and there was a waterfall here and we're hiking to this waterfall we're gonna stand right on top of the waterfall where the waterfall was going right over the cliff and plunging down into the plunge pool the water is gone but that plunge pool is still there you guys doing so that's our destination and I hope just from looking at this kind of a map you can see how unique the landscape is and how a geologists I don't know J Harlen Bretz back in 1922 would notice that geometry and say something unusual happened here I don't think I want to do much more here except one more thing those are two rock climbers that are just leaving so we may have the whole hike to ourselves I think I've showed you this before but here's the general sense of how exposed the German chocolate cake in here there's a dozen you can count better than I there's a dozen maybe lava flows one on top of another that we would not see if it wasn't for the ice age floods digging deeply into the German chocolate cake and exposing these basalt lava flows and yes we do have very specific names for specific lava flows here in frenchmen cooling if you are a regular you'll recognize these names Frenchman Cooley I parked the car and we're pretty much still standing right where that stick person is and so the columns that you see behind me and we'll get good looks at those columns the whole way you're looking at the rows of is everybody buffering is everybody buffering good thank you so the major cliff former here is one particular lava flow called The Rose a lava flow and if usually if you're saying well that sounds familiar to me the Rosa yeah the Rose is one of those lava flows that forms beautiful columns and that's one of the main reasons that we're here we're gonna actually get a chance to see some beautiful rock columns I promise in just a couple of minutes test question for you there's another lava flow that has beautiful columns as well the Elephant Mountain flow which is significantly younger than the rosa we don't see any Elephant Mountain lava here at Frenchmen Coulee it never got this far west but over we went to a different place called Drumheller channels we would see both the Elephant Mountain lava and the rosa my question to you is what analogy did we use what food products did we use to use as a reminder of what these rows of columns look like I'll ask that first what food product did we use to use as a food analog for the rows of lava flow the one you above my bushy head oh I'm seeing both answers so I'm asking for Rosa and then I'll ask a similar question what food did we use for the columns of the Elephant Mountain columns look different okay I think we'll leave that one open we'll let you guys fight over it okay when we get to that when we get a little closer I'll show you my prop I either have tootsie rolls or crinkle cut french fries in my pack it's going to taste real good one's not going to taste real good I hope I brought the one that tastes good but you don't know until we take a little hike I think we're ready to go don't you I think we're ready to go talk amongst yourselves let me give you a nice scenic shot as I pack up I'll let you listen to the canyon or ends I assume that's what their until somebody tells me differently you take me two minutes to get stuff into my pack and then we'll go so glad you're with us tonight oh my hammer my hammer actually this is probably a good place to do that now that stuff's too rotten we're gonna find a better place I need a good clean piece of Rosa that just pings this stuff's got too many fractures it's got too much weathering it's got a little bit of lichen on it it's not as good as it could be so we'll we'll break open some Rose a little bit further on so the hammer goes in we don't need that map I don't think we're even taking the white board we'll get this stuff on the way back to the car I don't know about you if I'm a guy that always has to walk around make sure I haven't left anything so give me another 20 seconds leaving the whiteboard that was not even worth it don't even why I brought it I'll remember to get that rocks away oh the towel oh I got to bring the towel I gotta keep my eye on you I don't want you to blow over all right now get in the shade so I can see what I'm doing so ideally this is gonna be like walking in my neighborhood like we did before goodbye whiteboard I'll see you later that's an inanimate object I don't think my whiteboard speaks English I'll take a walk I think it's three bars right here so I'm just gonna take a walk and then I'll check in with you and get a little report on how we're doing visualize okay I'm in the shadows so I can actually read what you're saying are we doing okay right now we have almost a thousand people I don't want to waste your time but I don't want to do this if we're if we're not communicating doing good okay you're looking to the Northeast right now you can see a white van and there's my blue van parked next to it you can see it some beautiful single row of columns I wish I could zoom for you but I'm not going to at the moment you see above those other vehicles off to the right of the curvy road that's called the feathers locally that's a very famous place to rock climb and we'll talk more about the rows of columns but the Ice Age floods plucked almost all of those autumns away except for that single row it's almost impossible to believe and then that big Canyon to your left can I swing over there a little bit and we're starting to lose some of it you're looking down into Frenchmen Coulee right now you're pretty much looking north right now so if you happen to be on Google Earth or Google Maps right now in a different window you're looking north from agatha tower across the floor of Frenchmen Coulee and we'll have a different look down into a Coulee from above but right now we're kind of looking at an eyeball level okay Frenchman Cooley you're looking at it right now now before I leave are we still good I'm just I'm not gonna ask anymore I think I'm just gonna go for it I'm just gonna assume we're we're functional yes it's a square Canyon Lees looks like vertical walls horizontal floor no River was a puzzle to geologists for a long long time okay I still don't like the camera having a mind of its own the get that gives oh by the way we go try to keep you so that you can see some of the skyline this is a nice shot off to the left let's see if I can give it to you I'm a rookie driver this thing you're gonna have to be patient with me so that's the Rosa look at those wonderful patterns look at those wonderful fractures yes you're seeing colors that's lichen which I don't know anything about but it's the patterns here we don't have cut let's the rows of flow but we don't have columns here and there's a reason for that which I have a diagram to show you when we stopped next just put that in the back of your mind why would we have Rosa but no columns right here is there really a part of the Rosa that doesn't have columns and the answers yes so like I said this will be about our I don't know if I don't stop it'll be 20-minute walk I'll probably have to stop a couple times just to do a little bit of teaching this is a place I take a lot of people of all ages it's public land you don't need any permission to be here even in these weird times oh we got some friends here well I lost you and now maybe I have you back I'm going to hike and I'm since I have you just for the moment okay I cross through the tough spot are you still with us I think we might be okay the rest of the way I'm going to get into the shade a little bit here somewhere so I can read your comments but it looks like we're functional again [Music] you get too heavy here my heavy breathing aren't you lucky like most of you my whole fitness routine is off I usually swim for mornings a week do some weight training with a friend nothing for ten weeks or whatever it's been feeling it okay I think we're back can I check with you I think we might be good the rest of the way but let me just double check if you are having fuzziness it may be you if you go down to your gear icon in the lower-right play with it and select a different resolution I think you might be okay you know that little hole we cross through is always a trouble spot so we're looking up still at the rows of flow on you're saying I don't see those columns man I don't see those columns where you just making up the columns and by the way I'm going to be coy till we get to the top I don't know if you want to vote again or not does the rows that have crinkle-cut french fry columns or does the rosa have tootsie rolls this is a nice a nice trail works for pretty much people of all ages I've taken groups with people in their 70s and even 80s and as long as we go nice and slow we can take a group of I don't know 60 or 70 folks and this trail continues but we're gonna we're going to bushwhack over here to the right I think it will pause here and help you see that we have still the rose and now but what we looks like what we have on the lower half of the frame you can see some hint of columns can't you and let's go over there it's good place to bang on a couple rocks no give you a lay of the land here first of all beautiful light out here right now there's nobody but us and a lot of locals call this stuff down below shale rock because it kind of from a distance looks like shale doesn't it just a bunch of slivers of things okay now I'm gonna get now I'm gonna get greedy I'm gonna try to set this up on the tripod I'm gonna try to go over there there's no wind at the moment did you safe I'm gonna I'm gonna get my blanket out and wrap it around like like it's a Charlie Brown Christmas stabilize this little baby Christmas tree oh so sweet all right you're not going anywhere you're not going anywhere you're swaddled in in a manger right now okay what I want to do is I want to go over and grab a few of these plates I want to break them open for you and your ear me very well because the mics on this side of the phone I've learned that long ago so I'll be shouting to you uh no I got a plan I got a plan just hang on us maybe got a good sample for you right between the eyes all right so I'm gonna be on this side of the camera so that you can hear my voice well and then I'm gonna reach around here oh yeah we don't need the macro so can you see first of all that we have we do need the macro hang on forget it I can't see then amateur hour for sure I don't need to apologize this first time for everything man come on fool first time for everything so I'm hoping that you can see that there are some sparkly minerals here on the outside the weathered surface but what I was doing is taking this weathered surface which is on the outside and then breaking it open with a hammer so that we can see the crystals the beautiful minerals that are on the inside of this basalt and this basalt is famous for not having many minerals to identify but what I was hunting for is some beautiful big plagioclase feldspar that are inside this rose oh lava flow it's one diagnostic way to tell the difference if you're out here I learned this from Jack Powell and Bob Bentley 30 years ago you know all these all these layers in the German chocolate cake looked the same from a distance and even up close really but there's a couple of flows that you can tell in the hand sample you know that's what I'm doing right here there's these big orange phenocrysts about the size of my pinky fingernail and now that I say that I'm on a hunt one more time and if I don't have any luck oh well okay it's a decent view isn't it before I get in there let me try one more time know if you can see from here but there's this crazy close spacing of these fracture set here so tightly that's why these plates fall out like this that's an interesting lesson I think we're close to the top of the rows of columns and I guess there aren't good fina crests in the top of the rows of columns I didn't know that but I think that's true so we move on Charlie Brown Christmas tree apron removed looks like we're still streaming and now we're going up to the top are you ready I said are you ready we're going up to the skyline here we go did I leave anything he looks back he does not see anything okay so we're Bush y again on the left because because I know how to get to the top of the horseshoe just look straight ahead alright time for the heavy breathing to start again here's the time when somebody else in the group talks about flowers talks about rodents talks about snakes talks about sagebrush steppe you're not getting it from me I'm sorry we'll do an obligatory obligatory yeah pretty sure I got my hammer thanks for asking if not I know where to look come on man we're going this way I'm talking to the camera now talking my gadget my gizmo why it's so hard to just keep it straight what we're doing is walking to the top of the Rosa Flo and we're taking a spot well seems like many of you are fans you see this stuff I'd say hell is ash it's been sitting here for 40 years seven days or eight days or whatever it's still out here you're like well why didn't blow away good question there's just little pockets here and there that are protected from the wind or maybe the wind the hash continues to get picked up and blown a little while and then tricky taken back down okay let's pause you're now looking straight West and the skyline is my County kid a test count in my backyard is right over that far Ridge and I think since the Sun is pretty good now let me try to get you over here to the left here's a good lesson sorry sorry sorry Dale or have you uh how many times you want me to do all right so first of all you might be able to hear the freeway or that close you see those trees over there and a couple of houses couple of barns do you see them over to the left I can't zoom for you because I'm live-streaming but in front of that R is some truck some semi traffic going back and forth so that's interstate 90 man it's right over there it's literally five minutes off the freeway but geologically what I want to show you and the light is very good to see this now if I can swing to the right what do you notice here about the landscape in the foreground it's kind of exposed German chocolate cake sagebrush I've been hiking up through it but it's not all like that is it look it over here I can't see the German chocolate cake over there if if we sprinted right now that would take us a long time by the way and a full sprint that would take us well it would take me and a full sprint 15 minutes to get over there easily maybe conservatively maybe a half an hour it's quite a ways away but if we got over there and we started just digging our hands into those hills what would one of those cells made out of the answer is not German chocolate cake that's correct Paulo that's what's that's the kitchen flour that's the list you might have to go back and watch the l es s show the list show the Palouse list but this is one of many places in Eastern Washington where you can see this incredible boundary this sharp boundary between places that were untouched by the Ice Age floods that's what I'm saying those cell towers over there and those rolling hills can I pan again to the left do you see how graceful those hills are this is a miniature version these are the Frenchman hills and Ice Age floodwater Missoula flood water never crushed this at the Frenchman hills or the saddle mountains for that matter so it's a good teaching place for our students all right now the lights going to be bad for you for a while because we're going straight into the Sun but you're going to have to deal with it and I've been leaving so many groups out here there's now a trail they're never used to be a trail like this so just parenthetically I can say that it's not just me of course these public lands have been way more popular than they used to be which is generally a good thing it's it's nice to see people out enjoying public land it's our land you know and I've been here 30 plus years and back in the early days my early days here which is the early 1990s I honestly don't remember running into many people didn't matter if it's a weekend or a weekday morning evening didn't really just seem to see many people including rock climbers by the way but I personally think and I don't think I have any data to back this up but I personally think that social media has driven a lot of this it's so easy to use a cell phone snap a couple beautiful photos put them on Instagram or Facebook or other social media channels that I'm too old to understand and people get worse that I want to go see that I'm gonna go there and it doesn't take much effort to find out where that is so these places are are dramatically different than they used to be okay since we have another at least five minutes of kind of blinding Sun let's take a break and look over to the left because the Sun is quite good and you might enjoy the view and if you're a person who's concerned about my safety I want to assure you that I've been out here I don't know how many times and they feel very comfortable out here and I know my limits even as an older portly man now so please don't be worried this is a very safe place to be and I've I've walked this many many times so we're going over to the left to get a look down and this is not the lip of the waterfall but we're starting to get a sense of Echo Coulee and the light is quite nice and that was what I was hoping for here when I took you up I knew the I knew this the the strip the I knew that cell coverage would be good up here and I thought at this time of night this type of evening we'd have good luck with the columns so now that I can see your comments I'm gonna settle it once and for all you're looking at the Roza columns crinkle cut or tootsie roll are you looking at crinkle cut or Tootsie rolling you're like I don't think I even can tell the difference looking but just remembering from what we did before crinkle cut or Tootsie Roll I'm seeing a lot of crinkle cut and you guys are correct good job the Roza have beautiful columns you're looking at some of them and they're crinkle-cut french fries shaped and I'm saying these that we can see right here are not perfect but I'm very what's the word I can't think of the word encouraged no I'm tempted I'm I can't wait I'm anticipating what the lights gonna be at the at the great spot to see the crinkle-cut and I'll take the crinkle cut out of my pack backpack that I have there ain't no touch to your all's here if you voted tootsie rolls that was for Elephant Mountain flows which are a different spot about an hour away okay you're looking south west right now way in the distance that's Baldy Mountain that towers above Yakima River Canyon that's an aggressive hike my wife usually makes it to the top and I make it about two-thirds of the way up okay so where are we going we're going to the main viewpoint that I like to use to see the crinkle-cut french fries in all their glory in 2012 September I was working with the BBC in London and that sounds more glamorous than it was Tom Foster and I had enough stuff on YouTube by that point that producer mags contacted me by email Meg's Lightbody I think she may still work for BBC and she said I need help finding good places to film we're gonna bring over Alice Roberts and we're gonna film on Ice Age giants series for BBC TV well that sounds good who's Ellis Roberts I didn't really say that but I kind of wanted to say that because I don't watch British television and I since found out that Alice is a very well-known presenter for BBC a medical doctor but she does a lot of natural science programmes she's kind of a younger female version of David Attenborough I don't know if that's selling her short or not but I was out here with them as my point the camera guy the audio guy Alice and mags and they had Alice climbed some of the columns that were going to see and it was a real education and how a topper at top rate film crew from the other side of the world operated in it it says something about our landscape here that people would think highly enough about this area to film it to put into a BBC program and so I think of Alice and mags and Mark the camera guy and remember the audio guy's name I think of them every time I bring a group over here because they were professionals and they were also very impressed well maybe they always say that with every place they go but they were good actors if they weren't really impressed okay so you ready let me let me stop for a second I promise I'm not gonna walk over the edge but we are walking straight ahead now another 20 yards and then it's going to be a sheer drop off and so this is the direction that the Missoula floods were traveling and dropping into echo Coulee here we go we're walking and about to go over a waterfall in the ice age I hope you're enjoying this I can't really see your comments I see them scrolling by but it the light is wrong to read them I'll insert comments for you wow this is amazing oh man beautiful that's what I would be saying now you're actually looking at a few different rock layers and I don't think I'm gonna bother with my handouts I'm just gonna do it verbally so if you recall from a past live stream I made a point pretty hard that the floor of these coolies are so flat and they're so dry but most of they're so flat because of the stubborn Grande Ronde lava so in other words if it wasn't for a very stubborn basalt layer in the floor of this Coulee I think this cooler would be much deeper but the water that cascaded over this spot where you and I are standing right now dropped I don't know what is that 400 feet 500 feet maybe and didn't have much luck digging into that Grande Ronde but look at all these layers on the left rows are the beautiful columns and there's younger sorry there's layers below that are older that are also there and those layers I'm going to pan now for you those layers continue over there but the Sun is wrong to see them so think of how many crinkle-cut french fries got ripped out of here I'm yelling now because I'm excited even though I've been up here a million times all of those columns all those closely packed pencils were swept out of here by a multiple series of Missoula floods and dumped into the Columbia River now you can't see the Columbia but the Columbia River is how can I describe it to you do you see the floor of this this you're looking into Echo Cooley Frenchman coolies - you're right you can't see it so you're looking in the floor of Echo Coulee and then do you see in the distance there's a few big Milk Duds out there and then just pass the Milk Duds you kind of change from a light green to a kind of a battered gray the Columbia River is down low between the pale green and the battered gray maybe you can follow that but if I swing back over here where the light is good if you've been out in the field a bunch with field trips you know that different time of day different time of the year you've got good light you got bad light you just work with the perspective you can find so I want you to see that we have a beautiful Mesa do you see that kind of beautiful tabletop that's over there so the Roza which are these columns are totally gone but that Mesa is left and then above the Rosa there's another layer above the Rosa but below the Loess do you see it it's that kind of dirty white stuff I'm trying to point to it right now that's an old lake bed from the German chocolate cake time that's called diatomaceous earth and it's it's 15 million year old material so we're looking at two very different times here the basalt and the diatomaceous layer are from 15 million 16 million years ago and then the loose up here on the top got blown in during the Ice Age and then of course all these columns got hauled off during the Ice Age I I'll walk you over to the to the best place to see the crinkle cut but the light is absolutely wrong I'm a little surprised but I guess it's worth going over there anyway and it's almost 7 so I think it's time for you to start thinking about what you want want to ask me I think I'll try to get in a little bit of hole up here so we can get out of the wind just a bit but I fail to complete our journey I need to at least make sure that you can know where to come back up here in the morning or I walked out here with my parents about what was that 10 years ago five eight years ago and they were just they couldn't believe this place and my dad was what 78 or something so he his knees weren't working that well but he took his time it was a very cold December morning as frost everywhere but often times in the winter time the light is so low that this place is even more dramatic than and now we can kind of see it so this is where we filmed with Alice you might have to google her Alice Roberts BBC kind of looking back to where we came from if you can kind of see there's a big hole right in there that's Frenchman Cooley so this wall that we're about to look at you can see a few of the krinkle okay not bad you can see a few you can't see the obvious wall that we usually look at usually stop here and have a little picnic and eat our skittles and have a discussion about these columns but we'll make do we can see a few of them okay I know where I'm gonna sit now I'm gonna get out of the wind [Music] I'm not gonna sit actually I'm gonna I'm gonna prop you guys up above me I think that's the best I can do for you as far as I like that other spot better this will have to do it's almost 7:00 so you are looking at a few of the crinkle-cut fries that are lit up most of them and there's a I see a few rock climbers still enjoying the evening are totally shaded out so we can't see them I dragged this up here somehow so I'll show you about the hammer winegar is this episode of Nick from home brought to you by winegar ice cream from Ellensburg Washington chocolate Gary doe you gotta love it little cloth ice thing [Music] [Music] so each of these individual columns has this super funky super funky crinkle-cut pattern and if I can get the camera to focus on a crinkle-cut I don't know if I can do it but we kind of know what crinkle-cut french fries are right you can see it now in profile in front of my face it's not a flat surface it's a wavy surface in and out and in and out and in and out all the way down if I turn it 90 degrees there it is again there it is again there it is again and I apologize the light is not perfect but every every every one of those columns has that pattern and the geologists who have studied these call these pinch and swell columns like if you focus on one column you can see that it's like an hourglass the column gets skinny and then it gets fat and then it gets skinny and then it gets fat skinny fat and I think I'm still not pleased with this look and so I'm gonna when we're done here and we done doing live Q&A as we walk back to the car we'll look again over across the way where the light is better and you might be able to see the pinch and swell columns swell pinch and swell now that in itself is unexplainable you know we don't need to get into the comments on columnar basalt again how about those how about those giant tree roots huh good night lava we don't have to go there again but it is important to point out that there are some things that we do not understand about these columns and this is a key place for us to say we don't understand I don't know what if I come this way can you see me any better but I can read your your questions from here so not only I'll do it I'll just finish up with the columns not only are they pinching and swelling pinching and swelling like crinkle-cut french fries but they also collectively if you come back out here at a different time or if you go to Bruce Bjorn stead has a youtube channel have I mentioned it before I'm pretty sure it's called Ice Age flood escapes YouTube channel Ice Age flood escapes I noticed he had a new video posted today but he does have a Frenchman Cooley video with his drone all of them are drone videos and he's got some good light on a few of those and that wall right over there that I'm pointing to that's in the shadows for us tonight and you can see not only the pension swell but there's another set where there's kind of this diagonals I did this that's wrong there's a kind of a diagonal striping of the whole set of crinkle-cut french fries it's like okay we're gonna pack these guys all together all right well that's fine sure let's do that let's let's put them all together pinch ants well pinch and swell pinch and swell and then it's like somebody decided well we're gonna I don't have a knife it's like the fan Keys gonna make like these oh I got carried away diagonal patterns that are either on the surface are all through I'll pick up my problems here it's totally unexplainable and we've had I don't know how many groups out here and we have a bunch of young people who have bright minds and they all think they can solve it in just a couple of minutes I love the enthusiasm and they're expecting us to solve it before we head back to the van and we never do because nobody's figured it out okay that was my attempt to introduce you to a few things with this beautiful light I want to answer just a few questions the best I can quickly and then I think I want to keep us going as we head back to the van and see if you can enjoy the light because the light and the wind being low is it's a magical evening out here I have no idea how much battery I have left we'll just keep going till I run out of battery if that's even a case okay now he tells himself I'm not flipping you off I'm gonna try to scroll back to where I start seeing uppercase age and extent of the okay the rows of flow is 16 million years old I have handouts let me show you a map that shows precisely where the vent for this lava flow is was 16 million years ago and how far that lava was able to get so the brown area is the entire extent of the flood basalts that are in the inland Pacific Northwest but this particular black line you see is the sole crack before this Roza flow and you can see the rosa flow is heading towards the Columbia Gorge and made it kind of to The Dalles and ran out of material and we've mapped out the extent of each of those flows thank you now I notice I've got to keep scrolling back because I keep losing my place that's okay I'm a pro oh man there's too many questions now that's it that's impossible are the Frenchmen hell's a fold covered with loose or just loose there's a fold there Aaron it's an anticline that's mantled in love so there's both oh I can I can oh good I can keep my keep track here from the parking lot to where you are now how long is the hike zarina I encourage you to come out here my parents did it in their late 70s and to answer your question it's a casual stroll half an hour it's it's if you're not a major hiker it's it's an easy hike to take of people of all backgrounds and all abilities I don't know who the French man was who was why it's called Frenchman Cooley do you need to worry about rattlesnakes out there been there but always concerned about hiking cross-country Larry let's put it this way I grew up in Wisconsin there aren't any rattlesnakes back there my first summer working in Idaho I lived alone in the mountains sorry in the desert with rattlesnakes everywhere I turned and I was freaked out and I saw rattlesnakes every day I even stepped on a couple by mistake they they don't bother you their rattle before you arrived they let you know where they are you just stop and you start walking a different direction they don't come hunt you down or anything like that they live here and they're interesting animals and I always have students or groups out here that are very concerned but I try to just say hey there's rattlesnakes that live here we'll probably see a couple just stop where you're walking walk someplace else and we'll just keep going and I don't know if that works but we've never had an incident and I've had thousands of people out here at all times of the year including hi rattlesnake season looking forward to my next field trip well thank you I I don't know how this one's going how do you trace a lava flow to a particular vent there's many ways to do it Brad one way is to actually find volcanic spatter if you can find it to prove that's where the lava was being thrown up into the sky there's also geophysical ways to find the underground a vertical wall of basalt I'm freelancing now here folks under scrolling back like I'm playing some sort of video game which I don't play so that was even a dumb thing to say Helen the floor of Frenchmen Coulee has big boulders on it The Milk Duds are they dropped basalt or erratic strapped it in from elsewhere good question yeah the lights pretty good now do I dare it send you over there the lights getting better and better to see to see the Milk Duds you kind of see them out there if the but if the Milk Duds are really if The Milk Duds are really close to the base of the cliff that's obviously a vote for just some basalt that fell off the cliff since the ice age but when you have Milk Duds you know I don't think there's a rule necessarily but if you're more than 50 yards away then it has to be doesn't it it has to be an ice ice ice age flood story well that even doesn't nail it down because where they rafted in from a far away distance or is that just the salt milk duds that kind of came from the floor of the waterfall and got sent out there and some of those are baked Allan some of those are big old boys out they've been out there since the Ice Age so they're definitely ice age out there by themselves but difficult to say ice rafted or flood tumbled everybody's talking about Patrick asking a good question I don't know if I can find it Patrick I'll try Oh somebody wants to do a saddle mountains trip tomorrow night oh that's interesting I have to think about that let's give you a decent background again a little bit we'll try a couple more and then what and then we'll walk I'll tell you what I'm to the live comments so if you got a question you'll love why don't you just type it in again and I'll just try to catch it that way I'm just gonna wait there's a little delay here this writ is Patrick what did you think about the first time you took this hike and saw this place is this close to where you film stuff for Tom Foster I love you this is so awesome Thank You Patrick I was here with Tom Foster we filmed a couple of two minutes geology videos if you find a two minute geology video called what is a we filmed right over there Tom Stoppard the guy who flies an ultralight flew over this while we were on the ground that was memorable what did I think of this place for the first time I couldn't believe it I couldn't believe I was going to be teaching at a school that was 45 minute drive from a place like this and like many of these places out here you really I don't want to say it this way but you can't get the full power of course until you're actually out here you can smell it and you can feel it and you can get a feeling for the scale that goes for any big impressive places but maybe this livestream is a close second for some of you at least an introduction to places that we have very close to us here Central Washington why is the st. Helens ash on the surface there but it's a foot deep in Ellensburg by the water tank yeah I see what you're saying a bunch of you were blown away haha a bunch you were very surprised there was 12 inches of loose on top of that fine st. Helens ash over in Ellensburg I can't prove it but I attributed - we have a lot of Agri in our Valley and there's a lot of plowing and there's a lot of wind erosion of topsoil off of those fields and so I think there's a lot of loose accumulating on top of the st. Helens ash in our Valley because of the AG and out here there's not as much AG not as much wind erosion now I'm no specialist but that's my case it's an observation for sure there is not 12 inches of us there's not any less on top of this ash out here back that ash up Y to cataracts at a time Barry I've asked that question about all the experts that can find you saw that map here so you are here and very saying why do you have this horseshoe shaped carve cliff and this one why do you have a pair why don't you just have one and the same pair is found at ancient Lakes the same pair is found up by the great blade in the Grand Coulee and then next door the same fight that peril over the time I've never had well I have had good answers I don't understand them I'm not bright enough but it's a math and physics thing about you can't even do it probably you have a cliff that's got a curve to it you have a factor I'm making it up now vectors of high velocity flow in the water there are certain points along that rim because of the geometry and the math or the cutting power is more severe than some place next door and so you kind of have these natural funneling places where you cut that's a garbage answer but it's the best I can do I can hear some people have you ever been out to a place like this especially this time of night you can hear sounds from a mile or more away if you experience that before it's amazing I'm sure I'm yelling and they can hear me across the Coulee so I should keep my voice down I'm not flipping you off it's a quarter after 7:00 to mourn I'm done I promise I'm having too much fun out here and it's such a beautiful evening I'm looking live how many ice age cycles to remove all that rock tough to answer that Rob safe to say there wasn't one flood that removed all this rock we have evidence of about a dozen floods that came down the Grand Coulee filled Quincy Basin overtopped Quincy basin and came in two frenchmen Coulee so the only way to answer that is at least a dozen floods and as we've discussed in past live streams the position of this waterfall rim migrants back as you continue to take stuff out here's the last question did the basalt intrude into any visible material in the Coulee did the basalt intrude into any visible material intrude into any visible material I don't understand the question I'm sorry I'm gonna ask another one I'm gonna wait for another one I'm sorry that doesn't register with me you can see the krinkle behind me now where did everything get washed away - the best way to answer that is you can think of a crinkle-cut it's not quite a Tootsie Roll but it's still as soon as you pluck actually this is a great way to see it now so imagine [Music] imagine there's water coming over the cliff right here and it definitely came over the cliff out here in the open space right there used to be columns right over there where I'm pointing they're not there anymore but imagine the next flood is coming just gonna hydraulically lift it pull it away from the rest of the Frye's and I would say immediately that crinkle-cut is gonna get broken into segments because you saw you saw it our last stop remember how fractured that basalt was those fractures run you can maybe even see the shadows you can see some horizontal fractures inside of the crinkle cuts so the first way to answer is where did all this stuff go is it ceases to be a column almost immediately as soon as it's pried away from the cliff and then it's broken into blocks the size of me and then it's broken in each of those knees is broken into pieces the size of my pinky and then each of those pinkies are broken and as long as it's my philosophy that stuff has flushed out of here but as soon as the water slows down even a little bit right down here where the muck guns are the floods are taking a left-hand turn to join the Columbia River Valley well if your water on the inside of that left-hand turn you're gonna slow down you might even stop you're gonna drop a bunch of the basalt even right there so much of this material that's been taken out of here is in scattered graveyards all the way from here to the Pacific and yes I suppose plenty of it was brought all the way out to the Pacific okay I got to stop because I still want to walk with you heading back towards the van to enjoy the life thank you for your questions I'm so pleased that this appears to be working and I think I'll do a sign-off now and a toast to you now and then if you want to stick around on the walk back of course you are welcome to until I go dead battery wise so please join us tomorrow night if you're interested tomorrow night is Thursday night 6 p.m. Pacific time saddle mountains I'm not sure if I'll be down at the saddle mountains or if I'll be back at the house not sure Saturday morning George Otis Smith 9 o'clock in the morning Sunday morning 9 o'clock Pacific Northwest Coast on Pacific Northwest tectonics a toast to you here's to your health there's the health of your parents and your grandparents your children and your grandchildren your nieces and nephews all of your extended family here's to everyone in your community and whether your community is your neighborhood or your town or your county or your state or your country or your planet here's to your community and our community school to you thanks for joining us tonight sure to appreciate it I hope this turns out ok and replay but seems like it's working so I'm pleased and I hope that you're pleased too good night from Frenchmen Coulee Washington State USA I love you ok we gotta clean up my garbage last night night last time not to eat my french fries that are raw frozen that was a terrible experience I think a few friends might be back at the vehicle thanks with everything except except that face can't have everything oh and I couldn't find the orange plaid you Clay's phenocryst guess they're just at the bottom I never really thought about that but I don't see him up here either oh I didn't even talk about entablature vs. colonnade there's still 150 of you so I've already packed up my diagram but the bottom half of this Rosa flow has beautiful columns because that is the lower colonnade but the upper half of this Rosa flow loses its columns and has this chaotic fracture set called entablature hey little Wren right here to greet us so if you google colonnade and entablature you'll see what I mean and the Rosa flow that's a beautiful rim [Music] [Music] I just poked him okay I'm checking for garbage Pleasant red there's a phone call coming in from that Carsten decline the call that's why we lost streaming there pretty good shot yeah I agree that's a nice view and then the lights about perfect right now [Music] Matt don't call me anymore please oh we got company how's it going you're perfect I'm just live-streaming here I'll be moving in just a second you're good where you guys from nice well welcome that's maybe the best shot I got for you right there this episode of Nick from home brought to you by iPhone 11 their 13 I forget but looks pretty good for me I don't know about for you maybe you can see some of the crinkle cut but you can't quite see the diagonal stripes even still okay we gotta start heading back now I'm impressed those gals found this if they're from Idaho their adventures [Music] all right we got 800 people I'll be curious how many are still with us once we get back to the car probably be 20 15 20 minute drive walk well just what the heck I got money I got data let's just do it can't be that expensive to do this Kenny how much does data cost well I'll skip a meal tomorrow how about that you're watching this from Finland in the middle of the night or maybe it's early morning by now a lot more wind I'll bet or maybe I'm sprinting maybe that's why you're hearing wind maybe I'm going full-throttle maybe that's what I'm doing I think you know better than that I got my PF Flyers on but hey now very good John actually that light is bringing that out pretty well that always really impressed me I don't know if it impresses you but that immediate transitions and landscapes not that common really in other parts of the country but here that's what Brett's was mapping of course all the time rolling hills and then they sharply end and you get into this goblin material looking at scab land here while the young gals are up ahead of me and now we're in the uncomfortable moment where there's an older man who says he's live-streaming he's following us with a video camera nine-one-one I don't know what are you supposed to do in those situations really I'm I'm I'm totally harmless I it doesn't know I'm not going to turn the camera off on I've got people watching or that that sounds bad um yeah I work for National Geographic one hope they're already back to the road so we don't have to do that I'm keeping you with us because it's usually quite attractive coming down this slope into this little gully and now that I think about it I think I'm gonna lose you again points we get into this hole I think I'm gonna lose you again like we did before and that might be the place to stop please turn left thank you please turn left please turn left now look down thank you thank you we have more people coming up seriously oh they're smart they know they know the time tonight to come up to see the good light pretty good.you it's beautiful yep you guys are smart you got perfect light for sure yep yeah a little bit have a good time yeah I'm sit up for some photography like a boss it man we were hunting we were hunting for FINA christe's okay I'm probably gonna lose you when I get into the hole here but I might be able to see you again once we get back where we started and I'll say goodbye then but if not I'll say goodbye now and thanks for watching so I didn't expect to see so many people this evening up this high so I don't know I'll see if my whiteboard still there see if my orange camping chair still there I know they seem like wholesome people probably okay down into the honest coverage only four via IP only four the hard core of the hard core yeah whiteboard still there camp chair still there I think we've got enough enough coverage up here to look back at the road well Patrick that is the sunset highway a very good job aged six person before they built the freeway that was the road from Spokane to Ellensburg can you believe it and I think if I drop any lower I'm going to lose you for good this is so sporadic that I'm going to wave goodnight to you and say thank you for sticking to the very end it sure was a pleasure to be with you out here I'll give you one last look at the rosa and say goodnight from Frenchman Cooley I love you all and we'll see you tomorrow night at 6 p.m. Pacific time

Channel: Nick Zentner

Views: 13,377

Rating: 4.961165 out of 5

Keywords: Nick From Home, Nick Zentner, Frenchman Coulee, Vantage, Missoula Floods, Roza lava flow, columnar basalt

Id: zUU2-JAi0VE

Length: 108min 4sec (6484 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Tacoma_Crow]

Thanks for posting this! I love his "Nick on the Rocks" series on KCTS.