[Scrooge]

Reprise .... I left Wenatchee in light snow, but the day got better as it went along.

Putting it in perspective, Moses Coulee, the Billingsley Ranch, and Rattlesnake Canyon (on the far left).

Approaching a slot

The bitter end?

I love deer tracks

The deer tracks led up a ramp of basalt scree to the top of the low cliff.

On top of the cliff, a different world

But still deep in the canyon

After the slot canyon, finding this broad area of natural slopes, still 300 feet below the upper coulee, was something of a surprise.

Ordinary erosion in basalt

In the bed of the Rattlesnake

So was the ordinary stream erosion. These cuts in solid rock were in the works long before the Floods. My guess is that this whole area was deep in the quiet waters of Glacial Lake Moses, the temporary lake backed up in the upper coulee by hydraulic damming (like that at Walulla Gap, only more so).

Glacial Lake Moses - size uncertain

However, when the water slid down into the slot canyon, it was like entering a drainpipe. The water started moving faster and you began to get enough turbulence to carve those vertical walls. But it wasn't a pipe; it was a slot, a wedge of pressurized water 500 feet deep, and when it entered a slightly wider canyon, somewhere around Douglas Creek, it turned into a hydraulic carving knife that turned a narrow canyon into Moses Coulee, in 50 to 100 days. ....... I'm guessing. I'm allowing 10 to 20 days to empty Glacial Lake Moses, 5 times. If you're wondering about the "narrow canyon", think about this: that slot canyon that I just walked up is the same one that Rattlesnake/McCarteney Creek was flowing in before the Floods, only back then it was narrower. Down where Douglas Creek Canyon joinrd it, it got a little wider, but only a little. ...... Maybe this will help.

Cross-section, coulee versus canyon

The silhouette is what Moses Coulee might have looked like, before the Missoula Floods. Think I'm probably exaggerating for effect?

Cross-section, Moses Coulee versus Rock Island Creek Canyon

They're real cross-sections, chosen because they're roughly the same width and height ..... and for effect. Rock Island Creek's the next Columbia tributary north of Moses Coulee. The cross-section was from a spot 3 or 4 miles up its canyon. The Moses Coulee cross-section is from somewhere around Palisades. ..... Errr. ..... Back to the hike.

Top of the stain

Man, I hate this. - Bitter end from above

I followed the bed of the Rattlesnake back to the top of the stain. Then some compulsion made me decide I had to have a better picture of 'down'. Seems like the same thing, everywhere I go, and I really am not comfortable, having to get so close to the edge.

Heading upstream - Note the sloping walls.

Baby canyon, with brush

Heading upstream, I'm still obviously at the bottom of the lake. There's no evidence that this area was scoured by the Floods.

Lots of brush

Streambed brush

Whenever I read a book where the heroes take to a stream to escape pursuit, or just because it's the 'easy way', I have to be amused. Obviously, the author's never tried it. If a stream's not choked with brush, it's blocked by fallen trees or lined with slippery boulders ..... with a little Devil's Club thrown in for handholds.

Rattlesnake amphitheater. It doesn't feel like a canyon

But it is. Rattlesnake Falls

I knew in advance that there might be a 'Rattlesnake Falls', but I didn't know it for sure. Nothing I've seen points to that spot and says 'falls'. However, Google earth definitely shows a drop, and TOPO does, too, but I couldn't tell for sure how abrupt the drop would be.

Rattlesnake Falls

Rattlesnake Falls

Rattlesnake Creek profile

The fact that it is a falls (the drop is close to 200 feet) makes Rattlesnake Creek's tributary status just that much more obvious ..... which leads me to the naming of names. Why isn't the whole drainage system identified with McCarteney Creek?

Rattlesnake Creek

Why change the name to Rattlesnake Creek for a mile and a half? The whole stream's only 4 miles long (at least the part that shows). Part of Rattlesnake Creek originates in Rattlesnake Spring, which is charged from an aquifer in the basalt bedrock; part originates from seeps and springs up in Sagebrush Flat, a huge bed of flood gravel laid down by Glacial Lake Moses. It is charged, like the one at the top of Northrup Creek, by streams that start further east, but sink into the gravel before reaching the lower stream.

McCarteney Creek Canyon mouth

McCarteney Creek Canyon portals

Back down in McCarteney amphitheater, I head upstream towards the mouth of McCarteney Creek Canyon. But I think that better wait for Part III.

[wolffie]

There's an obvious "bathtub ring" at Ancient Lakes (at least on one of them, the lower). Do you know why? I believe they drain to the Columbia. Did the Missoula Floods run down the Columbia and dam this drainage with a lateral rubble pile or something that's slowly being eroded through? Or does the lake level simply fluctuate with rainfall variations? What's the date range of the Missoula Floods? Approximately when is the rattlesnake season out there? With my young daughter at Vantage once (Spring), I was alarmed to see a small diamondback quite close. I whisked the kid away, then noticed that this was a garter snake in diamondback drag. Rattlesnake color, diamondback pattern, head just like a garter snake, clearly not a rattler. Anybody know the name of this species? Or is it just a race of garter snakes who've figured out that if you're not dangerous, it pays to look like you are?

[Scrooge]

wolffie, you don't know it, but you're essentially asking for the whole history of the channeled scablands and the discovery of the Missoula Floods. The story started at Potholes Coulee! Rather than me trying to give it to you, I suggest that you do some reading. ..... I think you'll enjoy it. Go to our main section on Coulee Country and the channeled scablands and look at the bibliography in the wiki (at the top of each page). The book you want is "Cataclysms on the Columbia". It's a good read. And I'm sorry, but I don't know the answers to your snake questions.

[treeswarper]

The common, locally used name for that snake is Bull Snake.

[wolffie]

I do not think it was a bull snake. Smaller, different behavior, shaped exactly like a garter snake. Although I've only seen bull snakes in Utah, and they may have different coloration there. I thought this one was like a subspecies of garter snakes mimicking rattlers. Thanks Scrooge, got my holiday reading now.

[Z]

[Scrooge]

wolffie, treeswarper grew up in that canyon. She's worked her whole life in the outdoors, I believe as a forester working for the timber industry. You can bet on that bull snake.

[Scrooge]

[GeoHiker]

More good work Scrooge. You're really getting around over there. Most of the lakes in central E.WA are much lower than they were 20-30 years ago due to increased irrigation and improved maintenance on leaking canals. Water quality has suffered as well. You can see the alkali high water mark through out E.WA. It's not unheard of that a rattler loses it's rattle. I came across a 5 fter that lost it's rattle and just about scared the beejeezers out of me. I'd guess a bull snake though. I've seen rattlers from early March- through Nov. I came across a snake ball at Banks Lk a week after having knee surgery, so that would have put it early March. They were quite active and I know I can jump 5 ft. straight up when need be!.......

[wolffie]

Anecdote from Utah, in December: Andy, climbing a cliff, reaches up to mantle onto the ledge above, withdraws his gooey hand in disgust: ANDY: "Yuck! What's this sh!t?" WENDY: "It's rattlesnake sh!t, Andy." ANDY (irritated): "And how do YOU know what kind of sh!t it is?!" WENDY (patient, all-suffering voice): "Because the rattlesnake is sitting right next to it, Andy." The snake had been warming itself in its habitual spot in the sun, but apparently got caught by the afternoon shadow, and was now so cold it was immobile. Fortunately. We blundered into a bull snake once in Canyonlands. It reared up, mouth wide agape, hissing loudly (sounds just like a rattle), proving that you don't have to be venomous to make people run 30' in 3 paces. I was brown, not the sage-green I recall in the Vantage snake. Wide variety in coloration would not be surprising. 9/1/12 in the Pasayten, I met 2 hikers who'd just seen a two-headed snake. I asked if they had any more of that good stuff they'd been smokin'. When *I* start seeing 2-headed snakes, I go home. Turns out, 2-headed snakes are rare but not unheard-off (google it), both Y-shaped and one head at either end.

[wolffie]

I just flew over all this stuff 2 days after finishing Cataclysms on the Columbia! Saw gravel bars near Spokane; Grand Coulee; Quincy Basin. Best of all: the plane had real-time google earth flight maps, so I knew exactly where we were; the overcast was so thin that it cleared when it dipped into the Clark Fork valley, and I saw ripple marks in the lakebed of Glacial Lake Missoula, pretty sure. If you ever fly Minneapolis <--> SeaTac, get the earliest flight with a window seat. We left Minneapolis 9:00 AM CST . In December, the sun is still low enough to cast shadows at that time, even on the subtle terrain of the Dakotas and eastern Montana. I prefer a north-side seat (downsun), but it's a toss-up. This flight went smack dab over the channeled scablands, N of Eephrata, just S of Spokane, S end of Grand Coulee, barely S of Chelan. Sometimes you get lucky and the Cascades are clear. W --> E, the route is more southerly; a starboard seat gives a good volcano view, but you'll miss most of the scablands. Long summer days, get the 6 AM flight out of MSP with a starboard seat, and you'll land with a stiff neck and be happy about it.