I am overwhelmed by the Majestic features of Frenchman Coulee. It is now a "Want to Visit" places I would like to go. Those French fry cut rock walls remind me of tall high-rises.
Tell Liz thanks for allowing us to come along. I love the varied geology that our state has as well as geography. Thanks for sharing our beautiful state, Nick. And give Bijou a rub from me. 🤗💕
We did this hike today, a week after your video… still no wildflowers - but a LOT more crowded already! The cliff edges are quite exhilarating indeed. Thanks for leading the way!
One of my favorite places. I didn't know about Frenchman Coulee until I took a Geology class at Yakima Valley Community College. Been back there numerous times. Such an awesome view and fascinating terrain.
Please thank your beautiful wife for sharing you with us on your day off. It is wonderful to get to experience this country. When I lived in Moses Lake I would oftentimes go for one or two day hikes. While my friends always called this scenery boring I call it stark beauty. If you sit for a few hours you will get to see so much life here, just like deserts. Thank you for taking us along on your hike; the geology and shear beauty can and does take my breath away.
Nick, I don't do well with heights, but I love getting a view of the coulee. Though the thought of you getting so close to the edge gives my knees the wobbles. The landscape is so sere and beautiful, its hard to imagine waterfalls far greater than Niagara flowing over these cliffs. Thank you for sharing your Sunday walk.
Hi Nick! I loved the shadow wave at the beginning of the show Such a beautiful valley with all of the krinkle cut rocks! Such a gorgeous day, and I am guessing that after a long winter, you and Liz are really enjoying your day! Thanks for taking us along! I think I have said this before, but I always sort of cringe when I see you so close to cliffs, so please always remember to keep enough ground beneath you so that if you ever happen to trip, you can recover and not go over the cliff. Forgive me for saying that, but I know that I and a zillion other people would like to keep you around!! I love you!
Thanks so much Nick, my balance is rubbish after a course of strong medication so my mountain walk days are over, this video was so very nice, you had me on edge!
Thank you for sharing. It was a beautiful day in Central Washington. There are other UA-cam content creators that have discussed Coulees, Scablands, and Floods. But your channel is in great depth and detail. If I have a question about some feature I see in the landscape, I will turn to your library of videos to start. I live in Union Gap on Ahtanum Ridge. I can see across the 'Gap' to Rattlesnake Hills. One thing that really caught my attention was how wide the Gap is at top. I was trying to calculate how many billions of cubic feet of material was carved out by Yakima River, where it went, where is was deposited. Depending where you are in Yakima Valley, the Columbia Flood Basalt's vary in total depth and thickness of individual layers. I think in NW Yakima by Fred Meyer there is Andesite or Rhyolite from Goat Rocks? Some of those flows make up Scenic Drive and Naches Heights.
This youtube comment solves the mystery of the diagonal stripes. Haha, in all seriousness. Thanks for these! It's interesting to see how semi-arid central Washington is. The west in general is extremely divided it comes to biomes they vary so wildly. CA coast line is much different than the central valley or Mojave desert which is diff than the mountainous areas in the same state. I recently drove from Eureka, CA to Seattle and Southern Oregon was way different than their central valley which was sooooo green compared to the CA central valley and Portland area seemed more like the area on the way to and near Seattle than the rest of Oregon. The Seattle side was way different than this! Mountains really are what dictates a lot of our environments.
That’s the most amazing land formation I’ve ever seen. The scale of the 2 causal events just blows my mind. Here in Melbourne, Australia we have the “Organ Pipes” basalt columns formation, which is pretty cool but only about 1/10,000th the size of that.
Hi, hi Liz. Super timing! Crinkle cut! My friends and I are planning an outing there soon. (Still deep snow at my cabin.) Fun, again inspiring, and many thanks.
I miss the Columbia basin country. I live in La Grande, Oregon not shabby for Geology, but spring meant flying time spent seven years in the TriCities as a flight Instructor.
Trying to picture this smaller version of dry falls completely under water. Even this tiny one looks massive and makes it even harder to comprehend the totale massive scale of these floods rolling thru. Thank you, I love you and goodbye.
Great video, thanks for sharing. I want to stop there some time! Interesting point that the flood excavated down to the top of the Grande Ronde flow and spread out. I wonder if the crinkle cut effect is caused by a shearing force in the viscous basalt interacting with already crystallized portions of the flow. One would have to be there to see whether the diagonal striped cross from one flow event to the next, unless the whole sheet was deposited in one massive 300 foot thick flow. I seem to recall that there is a somewhat similar texture in some of the Deccan Traps photos. On the one hand it would be exciting to see a basalt flood in progress, but the negative effects would be horrendous, and probably so terrible a person could not get within miles of the event.
It seems a bit amazing even now but although I live in a city just north-east of Toronto, Canada (Peterborough), I had the opportunity, some years back, to tour quite a bit of Washington and Oregon. I was, by trade, a cartographer and geographer before I retired but also a geologist at heart. I worked at a local University and the main focus of research there was climatology and glaciology but I always had an interest in vulcanism and associated geologic processes. Your videos bring back a lot of memories as I visited many of the locations you investigate (some by accident as I merely saw something that intrigued me as I was traveling and I had to stop to look at it). I have hiked up lord knows how many cinder cones and walked across obsidian flows. Yakima and the environs was a favorite stop as there was (still is?) a great brew-pub originally opened by one Bert Grant (now deceased) who, ironically, spent many years working for a brewery in Toronto! Bend, Oregon also has (a) volcanic features in spades and (b) brewpubs! Gotta love it. The geology of that area of North America is tied , in my interest, with that of Newfoundland in Canada. As different as "chalk and cheese" but still, given the chance, I would break out the hiking boots. rock hammer, loup etc. and have at it in either location.
I was there climbing the walls that day. You are walking above Fugs wall, not visited much by climbers. I explored out there some, but like you said everyone is at the Sunshine wall. It actually got pretty hot and we went over to the Middle East wall on the north side of the mesa on the Frenchman side. I think I found a tree cast down on the end where you were pointing out the cars yesterday. Also what looks like a flood dumping of small erratic granite, slate, quartzite, gneiss. Also the flowers you are looking for, tiny little red blooms just sticking out of the dirt.
Great video showing it all. Have been there many times but one thing that should be mentioned...CATION in warmer temps, there are snakes in that area so watch where you step. Keep your eyes on the skyline and your feet!
Wonderful! Thank you from the land of Oz, where we have no Ice Age flood topography….just a few remnants of glaciated terrains in the South-Eastern Highlands, and fossil stream courses in the adjacent lowlands which had flow rates only about 10 times that of the present (rather modest) river systems.
I would feel blessed to have access to a place like that...and as i understand, there are many similar such places in the PNW. I hope to be able to visit!
wish I had gotten to climb here when I was in school...least I go and climb here now! You are correct that was the sunshine wall (edit especially where the climbers were). There are a bunch of smaller sub areas with different names all along those pillars. Frenchman Coulee by Sullivan and Yoder is the latest climbing guidebook that I know of.
My daughter is in Denver. She really likes the area. She was in Dallas and missed the mountains. We are from Yakima / Naches and can see why she likes Colorado more than Texas.
Gorgeous time of year for a hike there. In to many more weeks the rattlesnakes will be out of hibernation and change the nature of hiking in the basin, grin.
totally delighted to find you posted this video.. High places make me practically keel over, but, I held onto my chars arms and enjoyed the scenery. Thank you so much for this outing.
Greetings, Zentner 's, from currently Oklama. Soon traveling west-ish for awhile, not sure exactly where I will roam for a bit before I move to Leipzig Germany 🌹🖐🏾 Stay safe and thank you for teaching me - I will learn from you and your colleagues as long as you post vids 🤓🥰
Thank you, Nick, for sharing your hike with us. We were there at Frenchman Coulee about this time last year, and such amazing views! We were also delighted to see so many people taking advantage of such a fascinating place. Looking forward to more geology road trips inspired by you this year.
I was in Gingko SP today - just across the way and one of the tiny white biscuitroots (Gorman's) were flowering all over. As for how climbers refer to the crags, the upper taller tier of columns is the Sunshine Wall. The shorter stack of columns beneath the sunshine wall is partitioned into a few crags of the Lower Riverview Cliffs: Corn Wall, Millennium Wall, The Hen House, Jigsaw Wall. (Per Ford & Yoder 2008, Frenchman Coulee.) But all those south facing columns sure get some lovely sunshine and warrant the name SW. Referring to it all as the Sunshine Wall is good enough, so long as you're NOT trying to find your climbing partners on a weekend, then it can take a while to navigate the crowds and crags.
I live on the east coast and I can't stand Washington only because of traffic lol,but you definitely make it worth while to come back and take another look at your beautiful state.. enjoyed the videos and thank you..keep up the awesome work
Cool! I get off work and have a new geo hike to watch! Thanks, Nick and Liz for inviting us along! A slightly different angle and spot to get a different perspective makes it more fun! Again, Thanks!
I was like, what! How did I miss this one? But was pleased to see it is a new one. Thanks Liz for letting us come along. Thanks Nick for the show and keeping it short for your alone time. The coulee bottom is on my list for ebike exploration.
What a glorious day! Great light, lovely little tufts of fresh spring grasses... and that big bird, landing on a far cliff to top it all off. Mama Nature, ya gotta love it! Thank you for the upload :)
The very obvious krinkle cut columns in the sun are indeed the sunshine wall (there are many subdivisions). The licheny wall in the shade is called the "Running Gear Death Wall" and is seldom climbed. It's named that because the running gear died on the car of the first ascensionists during their first visit, causing them to have to walk to i90 and hitchhike back to their cars at the main FMC lot.
Wow Nick the first hike of the year with you and Liz and it is a tremendous sight to behold. The striations on the crinkle cut fries were probably made by small icebergs blasted against the basalt columns during the final big flood. The water pressure and speed was definitely high to do this remembering the columns once continued into the area which is now just air space but were blasted away by earlier flood events. Just my two cents.
Coulee! I’m lichen this! Looks like a great hike
Thank you Nick for taking time out of your day and away from yours and your wife's walk to share this with us! Can't wait for more to come.
Such a vista! As always, you casually step up and hit another homer!
I am overwhelmed by the Majestic features of Frenchman Coulee. It is now a "Want to Visit" places I would like to go. Those French fry cut rock walls remind me of tall high-rises.
What a treat! Beautiful scenery!! Thank you for bringing us along!
"I'm lichen what I see."
Tell Liz thanks for allowing us to come along. I love the varied geology that our state has as well as geography. Thanks for sharing our beautiful state, Nick. And give Bijou a rub from me. 🤗💕
09:50 What a marvelous viewpoint. Good job Nick.
You are correct on the sunshine wall, and on where the feathers are located.
Watching from Georgia...love your shows and love Washington and Oregon!
We did this hike today, a week after your video… still no wildflowers - but a LOT more crowded already! The cliff edges are quite exhilarating indeed. Thanks for leading the way!
Thanks Nick...I can't believe you called the mighty Columbia River a ditch!
One of my favorite places. I didn't know about Frenchman Coulee until I took a Geology class at Yakima Valley Community College. Been back there numerous times. Such an awesome view and fascinating terrain.
Please thank your beautiful wife for sharing you with us on your day off. It is wonderful to get to experience this country. When I lived in Moses Lake I would oftentimes go for one or two day hikes. While my friends always called this scenery boring I call it stark beauty. If you sit for a few hours you will get to see so much life here, just like deserts. Thank you for taking us along on your hike; the geology and shear beauty can and does take my breath away.
"crinkle cut French fries" I just love it.
This was spine tingling......literally. Sir, please watch your step around that joint. :)
What a very pleasant surprise -- a quick hike out to a coulee -- a really refreshing treat today!
yes - very refreshing, indeed! ❤
Good grief!! Mother Nature, the sculptress!
Nick, I don't do well with heights, but I love getting a view of the coulee. Though the thought of you getting so close to the edge gives my knees the wobbles. The landscape is so sere and beautiful, its hard to imagine waterfalls far greater than Niagara flowing over these cliffs. Thank you for sharing your Sunday walk.
My first reaction as well. 😬
I hear ya. I get squirmy watching it :)
Thank you, Mr. Zentner. I love your videos, the channeled scablands, and geology.
Thank you Liz for supporting Nick in this wonderful video.
Thank you Again Nick for our fix.Grab a day out it's still March, Alberta has a winter storm warning ⚠️ for Monday/Tuesday.
Awesome views, but ... i was happier when you stepped away from the edge of the cliff.
Prof. Nick!!!! .. thank you so much... could not be around for awhile... hugs and god bless to you, family, and students🤗
Perfect day there! Envious... 😀
Thanks for more amazing vistas! If there is a central WA tourist board they owe you an attaboy or even a check!
Thanks Nick...another great hike video...very enjoyable and clarifying!
Thanks for taking us folks from distant lands along with you, Nick. 'Lichen it ..' 😀
Thank you Nick ! 'Have not had my Zentner 'fix' for a while, and now I am feeling normal again !
Hi Nick, happy Spring to you also.
Thanks for the video Nick.
Thank you Nick from the Eastern Sierra!! Be safe!!
Beautiful morning! Great views of the Coulee and surrounding landscape! 👌
Hi Nick! I loved the shadow wave at the beginning of the show Such a beautiful valley with all of the krinkle cut rocks! Such a gorgeous day, and I am guessing that after a long winter, you and Liz are really enjoying your day! Thanks for taking us along! I think I have said this before, but I always sort of cringe when I see you so close to cliffs, so please always remember to keep enough ground beneath you so that if you ever happen to trip, you can recover and not go over the cliff. Forgive me for saying that, but I know that I and a zillion other people would like to keep you around!! I love you!
...shadow wave... Giggling about that when I saw your comment.
That flood would have been amazing to see. Thanks for sharing!
Great video Nick. Thank you guys for sharing your time and that place with us. Your the best. Love you too.
Wonderful field trip! I bet the flowers will be out soon. Hugs to you and Liz!
That view showed off the chips excellent. Always great video.
Oh I needed this!🤩😊
Thanks so much Nick, my balance is rubbish after a course of strong medication so my mountain walk days are over, this video was so very nice, you had me on edge!
absolutely magnificent! Thank you so much for sharing with us. And please tell Liz thank you as well. =)
Thank you for sharing. It was a beautiful day in Central Washington. There are other UA-cam content creators that have discussed Coulees, Scablands, and Floods. But your channel is in great depth and detail. If I have a question about some feature I see in the landscape, I will turn to your library of videos to start.
I live in Union Gap on Ahtanum Ridge. I can see across the 'Gap' to Rattlesnake Hills. One thing that really caught my attention was how wide the Gap is at top. I was trying to calculate how many billions of cubic feet of material was carved out by Yakima River, where it went, where is was deposited. Depending where you are in Yakima Valley, the Columbia Flood Basalt's vary in total depth and thickness of individual layers. I think in NW Yakima by Fred Meyer there is Andesite or Rhyolite from Goat Rocks? Some of those flows make up Scenic Drive and Naches Heights.
This youtube comment solves the mystery of the diagonal stripes. Haha, in all seriousness. Thanks for these! It's interesting to see how semi-arid central Washington is. The west in general is extremely divided it comes to biomes they vary so wildly. CA coast line is much different than the central valley or Mojave desert which is diff than the mountainous areas in the same state. I recently drove from Eureka, CA to Seattle and Southern Oregon was way different than their central valley which was sooooo green compared to the CA central valley and Portland area seemed more like the area on the way to and near Seattle than the rest of Oregon. The Seattle side was way different than this! Mountains really are what dictates a lot of our environments.
That’s the most amazing land formation I’ve ever seen. The scale of the 2 causal events just blows my mind. Here in Melbourne, Australia we have the “Organ Pipes” basalt columns formation, which is pretty cool but only about 1/10,000th the size of that.
Thank you for taking your time and personal expense to show us the geologic wonders if your neck of the woods.
Hi, hi Liz. Super timing! Crinkle cut! My friends and I are planning an outing there soon. (Still deep snow at my cabin.) Fun, again inspiring, and many thanks.
Good to see you Nick and Thanks
wow thank you very nice for a Sunday
I miss the Columbia basin country. I live in La Grande, Oregon not shabby for Geology, but
spring meant flying time spent seven years in the TriCities as a flight Instructor.
Thank you for taking us back to FC. I was there 3 wks ago and outstanding to see the landscape was covered in snow. I am a subscriber.
Trying to picture this smaller version of dry falls completely under water. Even this tiny one looks massive and makes it even harder to comprehend the totale massive scale of these floods rolling thru.
Thank you, I love you and goodbye.
Great video, thanks for sharing. I want to stop there some time! Interesting point that the flood excavated down to the top of the Grande Ronde flow and spread out. I wonder if the crinkle cut effect is caused by a shearing force in the viscous basalt interacting with already crystallized portions of the flow. One would have to be there to see whether the diagonal striped cross from one flow event to the next, unless the whole sheet was deposited in one massive 300 foot thick flow. I seem to recall that there is a somewhat similar texture in some of the Deccan Traps photos. On the one hand it would be exciting to see a basalt flood in progress, but the negative effects would be horrendous, and probably so terrible a person could not get within miles of the event.
We use to look for opal in the diatenatious earth pits north and south of this point in the early 60's , have free climbed some of those walls,
Thanks Nick! I needed this tonight.
Yes . . . I did too. 🙏
It seems a bit amazing even now but although I live in a city just north-east of Toronto, Canada (Peterborough), I had the opportunity, some years back, to tour quite a bit of Washington and Oregon. I was, by trade, a cartographer and geographer before I retired but also a geologist at heart. I worked at a local University and the main focus of research there was climatology and glaciology but I always had an interest in vulcanism and associated geologic processes. Your videos bring back a lot of memories as I visited many of the locations you investigate (some by accident as I merely saw something that intrigued me as I was traveling and I had to stop to look at it). I have hiked up lord knows how many cinder cones and walked across obsidian flows. Yakima and the environs was a favorite stop as there was (still is?) a great brew-pub originally opened by one Bert Grant (now deceased) who, ironically, spent many years working for a brewery in Toronto! Bend, Oregon also has (a) volcanic features in spades and (b) brewpubs! Gotta love it. The geology of that area of North America is tied , in my interest, with that of Newfoundland in Canada. As different as "chalk and cheese" but still, given the chance, I would break out the hiking boots. rock hammer, loup etc. and have at it in either location.
Beautiful
Thank you Professor Zentner
I was there climbing the walls that day. You are walking above Fugs wall, not visited much by climbers. I explored out there some, but like you said everyone is at the Sunshine wall. It actually got pretty hot and we went over to the Middle East wall on the north side of the mesa on the Frenchman side. I think I found a tree cast down on the end where you were pointing out the cars yesterday. Also what looks like a flood dumping of small erratic granite, slate, quartzite, gneiss. Also the flowers you are looking for, tiny little red blooms just sticking out of the dirt.
The camera work is good enough to send me and my acrophobia out of the room, despite the beauty of the subject matter.
Thanks for the hike to the coulee great perspective from the lip!!
Great video showing it all. Have been there many times but one thing that should be mentioned...CATION in warmer temps, there are snakes in that area so watch where you step. Keep your eyes on the skyline and your feet!
Wonderful! Thank you from the land of Oz, where we have no Ice Age flood topography….just a few remnants of glaciated terrains in the South-Eastern Highlands, and fossil stream courses in the adjacent lowlands which had flow rates only about 10 times that of the present (rather modest) river systems.
I would feel blessed to have access to a place like that...and as i understand, there are many similar such places in the PNW. I hope to be able to visit!
If you ever come out to visit make sure to buy a copy of Roadside Geology: Washington State.
Beautiful! Thanks Nick. I miss my home town of Ellensburg, WA, USA
wish I had gotten to climb here when I was in school...least I go and climb here now! You are correct that was the sunshine wall (edit especially where the climbers were). There are a bunch of smaller sub areas with different names all along those pillars. Frenchman Coulee by Sullivan and Yoder is the latest climbing guidebook that I know of.
It sure looks nice there. Here it's 19˚F & snowing. Cheers from Boulder, CO.
My daughter is in Denver. She really likes the area. She was in Dallas and missed the mountains. We are from Yakima / Naches and can see why she likes Colorado more than Texas.
I spent two years in texas. Even though it was in Austin which is perhaps the only decent place to live in texas, life is too short to live in texas.
Thank you for the scenic views and explanation of the coulee. Uplift and erosion on a grand scale!
This video is wonderful. ❤
Thank you.
I love you.
👍
Gorgeous time of year for a hike there. In to many more weeks the rattlesnakes will be out of hibernation and change the nature of hiking in the basin, grin.
Interesting formations and very beautiful. Thank you for the video.
totally delighted to find you posted this video.. High places make me practically keel over, but, I held onto my chars arms and enjoyed the scenery. Thank you so much for this outing.
Great camera setup! Felt I was there (including vertigo) . Excellent geology lesson.
Greetings, Zentner 's, from currently Oklama. Soon traveling west-ish for awhile, not sure exactly where I will roam for a bit before I move to Leipzig Germany 🌹🖐🏾
Stay safe and thank you for teaching me - I will learn from you and your colleagues as long as you post vids 🤓🥰
Thank you, Nick, for sharing your hike with us. We were there at Frenchman Coulee about this time last year, and such amazing views! We were also delighted to see so many people taking advantage of such a fascinating place. Looking forward to more geology road trips inspired by you this year.
hey, sure know how to thrill, may my day walking near the cliff edge.
Amazing hike and great history of the area. I’ll have to do this hike one of these days.
I was in Gingko SP today - just across the way and one of the tiny white biscuitroots (Gorman's) were flowering all over. As for how climbers refer to the crags, the upper taller tier of columns is the Sunshine Wall. The shorter stack of columns beneath the sunshine wall is partitioned into a few crags of the Lower Riverview Cliffs: Corn Wall, Millennium Wall, The Hen House, Jigsaw Wall. (Per Ford & Yoder 2008, Frenchman Coulee.) But all those south facing columns sure get some lovely sunshine and warrant the name SW. Referring to it all as the Sunshine Wall is good enough, so long as you're NOT trying to find your climbing partners on a weekend, then it can take a while to navigate the crowds and crags.
Footsteps over the amazing rocks. Thanks, Nick and Liz.
Thank you Nick! 👍
thanks for the lovely stroll.
I live on the east coast and I can't stand Washington only because of traffic lol,but you definitely make it worth while to come back and take another look at your beautiful state.. enjoyed the videos and thank you..keep up the awesome work
Cool! I get off work and have a new geo hike to watch! Thanks, Nick and Liz for inviting us along! A slightly different angle and spot to get a different perspective makes it more fun! Again, Thanks!
I was like, what! How did I miss this one? But was pleased to see it is a new one. Thanks Liz for letting us come along. Thanks Nick for the show and keeping it short for your alone time. The coulee bottom is on my list for ebike exploration.
Thanks for taking the time to share today very rugged and beautiful place.
Thanks for a nice walk on the wild side!
Thank you so much for these videos
Been there and want to go soon again...thanks for the hike.
Amazing to think how young geologically speaking these features are, the power of water is awesome in the original sense of the word.
What a glorious day! Great light, lovely little tufts of fresh spring grasses... and that big bird, landing on a far cliff to top it all off. Mama Nature, ya gotta love it! Thank you for the upload :)
I’m lichen this…. Lol
You rock, Nick!
What a nice surprise! Beautiful coulee thanks for the explanation about the waterfall placement etc. …have a great week!
O beautiful planet.
It's long been my mantra:
"Love the planet"
"Hate the world"
That was fantastic. Thank you so much.
The very obvious krinkle cut columns in the sun are indeed the sunshine wall (there are many subdivisions). The licheny wall in the shade is called the "Running Gear Death Wall" and is seldom climbed. It's named that because the running gear died on the car of the first ascensionists during their first visit, causing them to have to walk to i90 and hitchhike back to their cars at the main FMC lot.
No need to go to Mars, E Wa has all the exotic geology I need!
So beautiful! Thank you!
Thank you all
Geez, I wonder how many people have fallen off the edge there? Impressive. I get Thelma & Louise vibes.
I get the "willies" too to feel the camera angle careening along the edge of the, what, two hundred foot cliff? SCARRY!
Wow Nick the first hike of the year with you and Liz and it is a tremendous sight to behold. The striations on the crinkle cut
fries were probably made by small icebergs blasted against the basalt columns during the final big flood. The water
pressure and speed was definitely high to do this remembering the columns once continued into the area which is now
just air space but were blasted away by earlier flood events. Just my two cents.