No longer will we simply drive from Boise to Edmonds, WA without staying a few days in this area. We love both rocks and trees. What a great opportunity to get off the road with some accommodations and a few rocks. I found Nick Zenter from another video he did on the City of Rocks near Almo, Idaho.. Grateful to say the least.
Thank you! Very interesting!! BTW, I whacked a chunk of quartzite in the Wind River mountains of Wyoming with my Estwing rock hammer in 1970 and found myself picking a metal shard out of my knee. Hard stuff, indeed!
This absolutely blew me away. I know where this is, and how far from the present day Columbia it is. What was more mind-blowing was the source of the quartzite being so far away! Love this!
Whoohoo! Another geohike! Thanks for all the heads up for us rock folks! Bet the students will be enjoying the details on these if they want to do some extracurricular field studies! And, uh, it's quartzite. Don't be so hard on yourself. My landlady's kitchen counter where I live is made of that--it is TOUGH. That's why folks love it for that! It can take a lot of blows from kitchen utensils and not scratch or chip.
Lived near Mattawa. Use to take my kids rock collecting down stream from Priest Rapids dam on the Columbia. It's called Chinaman bar. Supposedly the Chinese working mines up north would travel south and pan for gold along this bar.
Per Spokane County Public Works Department, "The public right of way is typically 25 to 30 feet on each side of the road centerline." So unless you are wandering too far off the shoulder, you should still be in the public access portion of the road's right of way, unless it is a private or abandoned road.
Wonderful. There are a tremendous variety of rock represented in these cobbles, not just quartzite. I see bright green, bright blue, and red cobbles also. I kinda wish Nick had quickly mentioned the composition of those as well. (Side note: here in Portland, probably 95% of all river-rounded landscaping rocks are basalt. But sometimes, I find some "exotic" river rock used, and I find agates, and quartzite, and carnelian chunks mixed in. My guess is that these must be quarried from ancient Columbia river beds.)
Pretty incredible that the river could transport such large cobbles all those kilometers, all the way from NE WA to where they sit in that channel deposit, in what was presumably an alluvial plain segment in the Miocene, far removed from fast-moving, steeply-graded stretches near the mountains, where boulders and cobbles usually congregate.
While the Columbia we experience is largely a series of dammed pools, this bed of cobbles prompts a picture of a river capable to tumbling them all to such roundness. How deep is the cobble layer? How many miles of the old river course do they mark out? What monstrous volume of eroded quartz do they imply as a source? Wow!
very cool, you should scoop some down and make a bean bag seat in the roadside :) to sit and absorb the location. looks like a comfy spot. with apparently indistructable quartzite ;)
Nick on the rocks, Could be: Nerdy Nick's rocks in the head. Thanks Nick, I'm a curious Washington native nerd and your videos really help make sense of the incredible geology we see all around us.
I drove through there for the first time 2 days ago to work in Grandview! 2nd time ever in Washington, beautiful state! I was reminiscing on your podcasts while I was there. I definitely will couple your podcasts with Roadside Geology of Washington now that I'll come by every month! Side note, I listened to your podcast while hiking a couple 14ers in the Sawatch range in Colorado. Thanks for coming along!
Nick, Last night while watching this, I realized these are the same rocks I was screening out of my front yard last summer. My house is In Scappoose, OR. I am about one mile from the Columbia River about 20 miles North of Portland. I always had a lot of rocks in the yard so I decided to till the ground and then screen out the rocks before replanting. Each day I would keep a small “rock of the day” and I collected about a dozen rocks because they are pretty. After watching your video I grabbed my rock hammer I bought when I was about 12 years old went out this afternoon to the drainage way where I put the larger rocks and broke one open. Same type of rock inside and outside as your example rock. Simply amazing the prehistoric floods carried those rocks so far. Thanks for the lesson.
I live close to the river Rhine and I love walking along its beaches looking for fancy cobbles, wondering how they came to be in their various shapes and colors. Every one of them seems to have its unique story.
I'm one of those that wants one or two of those thanks to the, Ancient Rivers of the Northwest Lecture. It's a bit more of a detour from I-84 than I usually have time to add. But I'll get there! 😉
Thanks for the Google Maps tags. I’m only familiar with the major roads in the area, so these are showing me so many things just off my formerly heavily travelled routes.
Thank you nick, that was very informative. so nice to be outside with you seeing what you see, just tagging along. I love these too. thank you for such a blessing.
This mix of cobbles can be seen around Willapa Bay, especially on the South Bay Unit of Willapa NWR, Parker Slough Trail, and on the west side of Long Island--lovely stuff!
Great video Nick! My winery in Sunnyside sources grapes nearby grown in these cobbles. There are Missoula flood deposits here as well as plenty of erratic boulders. A great drive, bike ride or motorcycle ride as well. Thanks for your insight!
Great video! I love watching your videos. I have been Prospecting for gold for around 30+ years now and love learning as much as I can about geology. The Columbia River carried alot of gold back in its day before the dams were around. Would there be any gold in those cobbles? I know of a few other places that have the same cobbles on public land. Thanks. Red
I live in Western WA and a friend told me that they have river rock wherever they dig, not too far from the snohomish. I told him that my guess is that the Snohomish river flowed the through their yard maybe thousands of years ago. Another guess of mine is maybe that volcano erupted thousands of years ago and changed the course of the river to where it is now. I told him to rent a metal detector to see if there’s gold lol
Nick, we miss your downtown geology lectures with the graphics and slides. Bridge of The Gods, Supercontinents and Lake Chelan set the bar pretty high. I guess its true when they say you just can't go home again.
Nick, giving the Google Maps location is fabulous, thank you. You might want to add the coordinates for the Crab Tree Marsh Creek #3 Basalt columns and Frenchman Coulee to the video descriptions. But, I found both of those by searching Google Satellite images, including those white rocks on the road side. We are going to try to see all these places. Thanks again.
I'm addicted to your genius Mr. Z, thank you for more content. :) A word of caution - try not to flash your license plate number on camera. Use RU-vid's "Edit and cut" feature to remove it if you can. (You know crazies are out there.) Can't wait to see more of what you do. :)
There are quartzite cobbles like that down here in Medford Oregon. I suspect that the Snake River ran through this area millions of years ago before the cascades formed and terranes accreted.
Nick, Every county in the US has a "GIS" page on their website. It relates to property tax roles (public record) and can identify property owners. Then you know who to seek permission from.
Professor Zentner Thank you for all of your videos. They all have allowed me to gain a better understanding of basic geology. Two questions concerning River cobbles. Has there been any studies into how long cobbles take to form? Probably the volume, velocity of the stream effects the rounding of rocks, as does the type of rock itself. Am sure there are more factors tied to their creation. Is it possible to determine how long a steam flowed at a given location due to the amount of cobbles present? Thanks again for all of your efforts.
I remember climbing on a quartzite cliff on the south west border of Minnesota that color I think Would love to see some analysis comparing this cobble to that cliff. (and Mt Arapiles in Au while you are at it they all look the same and felt the same)
There is another cliff like this called Baxter Canyon in Pasco. Question: Isn't quartzite also formed by burial metamorphosis in rivers (river sand -> sandstone -> quartzite) and thus couldn't the Yakima river create quartzite cobbles?
Hey Nick, is it out of the ordinary to have found part of a geode in the mountains just west of Spirit Lake, Idaho? Joke: Why did Nick Zenter cross the road? Geology, duh!
I have to say bro, I don't really care, but it's hilarious that you never smash the rock on the first try. It's become like a thing. it's funny I swear
FYI private starts at the fence line, do not go past that ... I think even with a drone, and the shoulder of the road (public) is I think 12-14 feet from pavement (the white line) without a fence
Would I find these crystallite around Northport along the Columbia River? Very informative videos, Nick - Gladly found your channels today, subscribed, and sharing. Wishing my brother was still around to go rockhounding - fun hobby... Thanks & Cheers from Stanwood
The normal highway right of way along Washington State highways is 100 feet, or usually 50 feet away from the center line. So it is unlikely that you entered any private property in this video.
So what I'm trying to understand is, is where the road currently is was that the old river bed or is the mountain, the shoulder where the rocks are the old river bed? Where exactly is the old river bed?
Lots of rounded small rocks around here. At 2:12 right above Nicks hand is the upper half of Mt. Adams, rather snow covered, but way back there. The rocks are from the ancient Columbia River.
