The Washington Scablands are a MUST Visit for Overlanding, Camping, and Exploring

[Laughter] in the southeast part of Washington state there exists a truly remarkable landscape for decades its mere existence baffled geologists who had no answers as to how it formed a theory first put forward in the 1920s seemed so far-fetched that it sparked 50 years of fierce scientific debate this landscape was shaped by some of the most singularly violent events our planet has ever seen cataclysmic events so massive in scale they are difficult to comprehend what was clear to me though was was that I needed to see it for myself and so I packed up the truck and hit the road with the goal of doing some exploring off-roading and camping in this truly oneup aind [Music] Place well I am making my way over to the eastern part of Washington I just crossed over the Cascade Mountains I'm super excited about this weekend because as I was researching where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do in this area that I'm heading to I came across some absolutely incredible geologic history that I did not know existed and I'm really excited to share it with you because this is really truly one of those instances where the truth is Stranger Than Fiction you couldn't make this stuff up and so I'm no geologist but I'm going to do my best during the course of this video to share this incredible story because it is again it's just insane all right well I just made it to my first stop today h it is a Petrified Forest and as I mentioned the geologic history of this area this is definitely a part of it so I'm excited to learn a little bit about what caused these trees to get petrified I have no idea what to expect I'm the only one out here so uh we'll see a small Trailside Museum tells the story of this Petrified Forest where in this spot roughly 17 million years ago lava flows swept across Eastern Washington during luls between these flows entire ecosystems would emerge only to be buried by the next flood of lava but here something different happened an ancient Lake preserved trees that had fallen into it with these water soaked logs becoming intuned in the lava beginning a slow chemical transformation that eventually turned them to rock these petrified trees remained buried deep beneath the surface for millions of years until the end of the last ice age when catastrophic flooding eroded the basalt exposing some of the wood these floods also happened to be the main character in this cataclysmic story I'm here to tell and this was the first evidence of them I had come across however it would be nothing compared to what I would encounter later in the day [Music] [Music] [Music] well I had no idea what to expect but this is really pretty cool one of the things that's really surprised me is just the variety of trees that's up here and it's crazy but I think the most striking thing is the fact that you I'm walking around this landscape this Aid desert landscape where there's nothing but a little bit of like Sage Brush growing and then just under the surface you have these massive trees Douglas Furs and Elms and genos and all kinds of other things and you just never guess that the these are here and for me I just find this kind of stuff super fascinating like how did they get here and learning that story and so as I was mentioning in the beginning of this video just understanding a little bit more about the geology of this landscape and the events that happened here which were incredibly violent and we'll talk more about that as the video goes on but this is just one example of just an insane history and what led to these trees that have no business being here being just under the surface definitely worth the stop to check out if you're in the area gko Petrified Forest highly recommend if you're into this kind of stuff like I am get an opportunity to see something that I've never seen before so yeah good start to the day and uh heading back to the truck now to head on to the next spot and uh see what else is out here back on the road my next objective was three-fold first I wanted to find some dirt and explore further off the beaten path second I needed to find a spot to set up camp for the night and third I hoped to get closer to a geologic feature which would help me better understand the incredible events that led to its creation checking my maps I noticed a promising trail that skirted right along a massive Cliff Edge and so I set off to see where it led [Music] [Music] [Music] well this is pretty cool I just got off pavement and started scouting for some potential Camp spots to call home for the night I am right on the edge of this giant Cliff I mean look at that and it gets better I don't know if you'll be able to see it on this camera but there's a waterfall right there just absolutely spectacular still got quite a bit of daylight left so I might do a little bit more exploring but there's a number of campsites right here so it's good to know that I've got this as an option and right now anyway nobody's up here it also looks like there might be some spots on the other side there which would look right at that waterfall so I might go check that out next just to see what that looks like see if that might be an option for me to camp but this is absolutely spectacular well I think it's safe to say that uh I found camp for the night this is amazing so I was just on the other side of this Cliff up at the top right where that water fall starts to spill over the cliff Edge and I was thinking about camping up there but then with my camera I saw this area over here on the other side and I thought man if this is in the sun over here cuz it's cold I want it to be in the Sun and it's looking right at that waterfall it could be perfect and this is great this is actually a little dispersed camp area there's fire rings set all throughout here I suspect in the summer it's probably packed but right now there is nobody here I've got my own personal waterfall I've got this massive right here that I'm looking out at which is perfect because it plays into the story that I want to tell about the geology and the craziness that happened right in this area here so this is absolutely perfect so I think I'm going to set up camp and set up a chair and just relax for a little bit and take in these views because this is fantastic sitting down and taking in the coie in front of me its incredible origin story came to life in my head that Story begins around 15,000 years ago where 300 Mi to the east an enormous Lake holding more water than lakes erri and Ontario combined formed during the last ice age known as Lake Missoula the water was blocked by a dam of ice 2,000 ft high at some point the ice dam ruptured unleashing a torrent of water with the equivalent flow of every river on Earth time 10 a wall of water hundreds of feet high traveling in at 80 mph was Unleashed on Southeast Washington scouring the landscape and killing any living thing unlucky enough to be in its path it was the single largest flood in the history of our planet the flood was so powerful that it carved coolies up to 3 Mi wide and 1,000 ft high cut hundreds of waterfalls washed away entire hillsides and carried rocks the size of houses along with it normally this type of Ero occurs over millions of years but here it all happened in a matter of days in fact just 50 m to my North the largest waterfall in Earth's history was formed at 3 Mi wide and 400 ft High dryfall sits as a testament to the immense flow of water brought by the floods a single flood of this cataclysmic scale is hard enough to wrap your head around but scientists now think that Mega floods like this one occurred between 40 and 80 times as the ice dam would continually reform and burst [Music] again [Music] [Music] this [Music] well I've been out here for the past couple of hours enjoying the view but the sun just did below this hill behind me and um it is really cold I got just about all my layers on and I am frankly not warm enough so I need to get a fire going and I need to get a fire going like ASAP the spot that I'm in right now is normally incredibly popular I'm surprised there's nobody here somebody did come in and then they they bounced like immediately I think because it's so cold so I guess the positive is that nobody else is here I've got this spot to myself uh the the con is uh maybe now I know why but uh I'll be fine once I get this fire going so I just need to get that done oh a good fire makes all the difference I'm already feeling much better so I think I'm going to sit around the fire a little bit as the sun goes down stay warm well this is certainly not a bad backdrop to end the day this is just incredible the Sun is setting and the light on these Canyon walls right now is just perfect and I am the only person here just couldn't have asked for a better night and the fact that I found this this this does not remind me of Eastern Washington this is not the Eastern Washington I think of this honestly reminds me more of Utah but what is just absolutely blowing my mind right now is the thought that you know the Grand Canyon or a lot of the features that you see in Utah those were carved out over thousands or millions of years but this like this right here and a lot of the features in this area were carved out in the matter of days and just thinking about the scope and the scale of that flood and how incredible that must have been and how immensely destructive that must have been it just hurts my brain honestly to think that something like this could be carved out in a couple of days anyway I think that uh I'm going to let the sun set here just stay warm by the fire and then we'll see what the night sky is like if it's worth doing any nighttime lapses or astrophotography or anything like that I might give that a go but um I just couldn't have asked for a better place to call home for the night and this has me really excited to explore more of Eastern Washington and and see if I can find more things like this because I had no idea that places like this existed in Eastern Washington that you could camp at so just loving it right [Music] now well good morning it was a a cold one last night well it still is a cold one it's about 28 degrees right now it's about 5:30 in the morning the sun is still far from coming up but uh I just didn't really feel like being in the sleeping bag anymore so got out and um just trying to stay warm in the truck kill some time till the sun comes up doing some video editing and um soon as I start to see a little bit of light I think I'll uh probably get out and make some coffee but it's always kind of the interesting part about winter camping is the sun doesn't come up until 7 7:15 and uh so got to find something to do that's what I'm [Music] [Music] doing well I was greeted by an absolutely spectacular sunrise this morning but unfortunately the wind has really picked up it is blowing and it's like 28° out and so it is not pleasant out here I had planned on just hanging out maybe making some coffee and uh just enjoying the sits a little bit longer but I think I'm just going to pack up in a hurry and get out of here but I hope you enjoyed this video and I hope you enjoyed me sharing just a little bit more about kind of the geologic history of this area I just find it so amazing and like I keep saying the truth is crazier than in fiction sometimes and this is definitely one of those instances and so I will look at this part of Eastern Washington through a whole different lens now when I'm out here and so I'm really excited to do some more exploring out here in fact this is not the end of my trip I'm going to be meeting up with a couple of friends later today and we're going to do a little bit more off- pavement exploring around the area but this is going to do it for this video and so thank you so much for watching and if you enjoy these type of videos please do consider subscribing to the channel I have a goal to reach 25,000 subscribers by the end of the year and I know that a lot of people who watch these videos are not subscribed so if you like these videos and you watch them please do subscribe doesn't cost you anything but it really does help the channel out but anyway with that I'm going to get in the truck and get warmed up so thanks for watching we'll see you in the next one

Channel: Where to Next Overland

Views: 72,614

Keywords: channeled scablands, washington channeled scablands, overlanding, dispersed camping, eastern washington overlanding, missoula floods, where to next overland, lx470, 100 series land cruiser

Id: Y_23aaSqN9M

Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024