The family seems to enjoy road trips, but rarely demands much control over the specifics. So I get to pick the route and the side trips. I wanted to see the Palouse and Steptoe Butte seemed like a good place to see it from. We scared off the group that was there when we arrived and had the place to ourselves.
D worked with M on her disc skills, while I took pictures and read about the geology.
Steptoe Butte is a hill of 400 million year old quartzite. 15-17 million years ago, the Columbia River Basalts flowed around it, burying its base in a thick stack of lava flows. And then during the last ice age, an additional layer of windblown silt (loess) was layered on top of that (this loess forms the characteristic rolling and fertile landscape of the Palouse).
In the late 1800s, there was a hotel up here. But it's been a great place to watch the changing landscape for a lot longer than that!
More on Steptoe Butte:
Reading the Washington Landscape: Steptoe Butte
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