Gaurdian's of the Wallula Gap

Twin Sister's Rocks

The first time I learned of these two towering basalt rocks was when I followed the journey of the Corps of Discovery with Lewis and Clark. But oddly enough, The Twin Rocks were never specifically mentioned in their journals, unlike other rock features documented during their journey. Clark described the exposed basalt walls at the Wallula Gap as "black rugid rocks ..." [William Clark, October 18, 1805]

When my own two sisters moved to the Tri-Cities area, I made it a point, when visiting them, to go find these dominant looking natural sculptures along the Columbia River.

The Wallula Gap, a natural water gap of the Columbia River, is one of the most significant and spectacular features created by the great Ice-Age floods. Only one other flood feature in the Mid-Columbia Basin, Drumheller Channels, shares this distinction. This choke point is located 15 miles south of Pasco, Washington. Wallula Gap is the only outlet for stream flows for the entire Columbia River Basin of eastern Washington. This map illustrates the origin of the great ice age floods, Lake Missoula, in Montana. The flood path crosses the scablands of eastern Washington and congregated at the Wallula Gap. From there, the flood waters scowered down the Columbia Gorge backing up again around The Dallas and again near the current Bonneville Dam. Flood waters eventually made it way to current day Portland and backed up into the Willamette Valley. Glacier rocks with an origin in Montana were deposited throughout the Willamette Valley. Eventually the flood water met the Pacific. Gravel from Montana can be found up to three miles out to sea from the mouth of the Columbia River.

Rising high above the Columbia, these spectacular pillars stand as the northern "guardians" to the modern activities of the busy shipping, train, and road traffic...which like the river, squeezes through the Wallula Gap.

Floodwaters from Glacial Lake Missoula spread out over an area almost 100 miles wide across the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington, so its not difficult to understand why the waters backed up when suddenly forced to pass through an opening as small as two miles wide. The Twin Sister's were under 600 feet of water during peak floods. They were definately shaped by the power of erosion.

Today, the Twin Sister's won't see the burial of water that once regulary surround them, instead the land is arid and dry. Sage brush, wild flowers, and blowing sand dominates the uplands of the Wallula Gap. I took this photo of an old starving Juniper...one of only two trees I could find in the immediate area. The arid climate and lack of vegetation gives a great perspective view of the awesome landscape created by the Ice Age Floods, as seen in the photo below taken by the author of On the Trail of Ice Age Flood, Bruce Bjornstad.

I still have a hard time understanding why Lewis and Clark didn't find these basalt formations worthy of documenting...?The National park Service did though, and in 1980 The formations within the Wallula Gap were designated as a National Natural Landmark.

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During their journey, Lewis and Clark described many things about the people and landscapes they encountered on their expedition. But they also misunderstood and missed many things... In the upper Columbia region, Lewis and Clark stressed over the lack of firewood. They did not understand why salmon were dying. They bought many dogs for food. And, they noted a rock "resembling a hat" located down river from the Twin Sisters at the southern end of the Wallula Gap.

Hat Rock, named by Captain Clark, was the "first" distinctive landmark passed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition on their journey down the Columbia. Hat Rock, located in Oregon, rises 70 feet above the desert sage terrain and is one of the few remaining landmark sites of the Lewis and Clark Expedition not underwater. Clark wrote, "... a rock in a Lard. resembling a hat just below a rapid at the lower Point of an Island in the Midl: of the river ..." [Clark, October 19, 1805].

The flood sculpted basalt rock does indeed resemble a simple looking, hat. Maybe Lewis and Clark skipped over the Twin Sister's in Washington because the feature, to them, didn't look like anything familiar to their imagination...? For example, They named Chimney Rock in Nebraska, Chimney Rock, because it does look a lot like a chimney, and Hat Rock in Oregon, looks like a hat. Or maybe the rapids entering the Wallula Gap, during their time, were too intimidating, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition didn't have time to look up to discover the Twin Sisters? It "could" be that simple...couldn't it?

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The Twin Sister's are the guardians of the northern enterance of the Wallula Gap... ...while Hat Rock is the guarian of the southern exit. Both features watch over the movement of the mighty Columbia. Both features are testiments to a once sudden violent earth changing flood. If only they can talk...

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Could huge floods on a Missoula Flood scale happen again? Although global warming may now be a serious concern, it is likely that long-term climate cycles will cause large ice sheets to return at some time in the distant future, and cataclysmic outburst floods will probably recur in this region...once again.

Just outside the boundaries of Hat Rock State Park this rustic, long forgotton, cattle farm stands exhausted against the test of time. I wanted to capture it before it eventually dissappears.

Tsagaglalal and Temani Pesh-wa

Tsagaglalal and Temani Pesh-wa

 "She Who Watches" and "Written on Rock"

Gorge petroglyphs moved to place of honor

(Story excerpt from the Sunday, March 28, 2004 Oregonian Newspaper article by TERRY RICHARD)

Photo's by me...Steven Michael

Nearly a half-century ago, rising waters behind The Dalles Dam forever changed a wild stretch of the Columbia River, submerging salmon-rich Celilo Falls, the Long Narrows below it and hundreds of ancient sacred petroglyphs.

 The surrounding lands long had been a gathering place for people from the Warm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla, Nez Perce and other tribes. Some lived there permanently, while thousands more visited seasonally to harvest spawning salmon, to practice their religion and to join the annual opportunity to trade and socialize.

The petroglyphs -- drawings that were chipped or ground into rock to depict tribal legends, hunting scenes and mysticism -- are evidence of these gatherings. One narrow slot just above the river had so many thousands of drawings that it was named Petroglyph Canyon.

But as the reservoir rose behind the new dam, most of these rocks were covered by water.  A few were pried away and stored at the dam, perched against a wall of the fish ladder beneath roosting birds -- not a fitting home for what tribal elders consider sacred icons that provide a cultural connection between modern people and their ancestors.

 A plan to give them a more fitting, permanent home took shape in 1996, and eight years later 43 petroglyph-covered rocks have been moved to Washington's Columbia Hills State Park.

Formerly called Horsethief Lake, the state park is indisputably the best place to see native petroglyphs in the Northwest. The park is also home to Tsagaglalal, "She Who Watches," one of the most famous rock images in North America.

Because of past vandalism, viewing of the Tsagaglalal image is limited to an escorted tour twice a week by the Washington State Park service.

 "Jody Heath, was my guide.  It was very obvious that Jody loved sharing her heritage with others, and she also respected the land in a spiritual manner."

 The famous Tsagaglalal, "She Who Watches", Native American rock art is a combination of two styles, a petroglyph (carved into the rock) and pictograph (art drawn or painted onto rock).  There is a legend about the art's origin that is hauntingly prophetic of the impact humans have made on the earth.

"There are several versions of the legend, but the one that was told on the tour was by the Wishram people:"

"...After a time Coyote in his travels came to this place and asked the inhabitants if they were living well or ill. They sent him to their chief who lived up on the rocks, where she could look down on the village and know what was going on.

Coyote climbed up to the house on the rocks and asked "What kind of living do you give these people? Do you treat them well or are you one of those evil women?" "I am teaching them to live well and build good houses," she said. 
"Soon the world will change," said Coyote, "and women will no longer be chiefs." Then he changed her into a rock with the command, "You shall stay here and watch over the people who live here."
All the people know that Tsagaglalal sees all things, for whenever they are looking at her those large eyes are watching them.

A petroglyph trail named Temani Pesh-wa, (Written on Rock), displays petroglyphs on their original slabs of rock and leaned up against a natural rock formation. Vegetation is slowly growing around the petroglyphs, giving the man-made display an increasingly natural atmosphere.

Chipped into 5-foot-long rocks, the petroglyphs are easily visible. They depict deer, mountain sheep and the humans who hunt them. They show thunderbirds, owls, fish and a mysterious creature with long flowing tentacles.

Facing east upriver, the rocks sit within a mile from where most were taken in Petroglyph Canyon. The canyon is covered by Lake Celilo, the impoundment behind The Dalles Dam.

When the rocks were removed from storage at The Dalles Dam, they were swathed in natural fibers and trucked in a bed of gravel for protection. None was broken during the move.

When members of the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through in 1805, they noticed a settlement of 1,500 at Big Beach in the future park. Before construction of the dam, the Columbia was placid and wide as it passed the settlement, then seemed to turn on its side as it rushed through the Long Narrows with what Clark described as a "bad whorl and suck."

The river's transition afforded a natural setting for large gatherings during late summer. The Native Americans harvested huckleberries nearby at Mount Adams, speared salmon from the Columbia and staged games on one of the rare flat spots along the river.

 

And, they chipped designs on the rock walls of the canyons. Some of those images finally have been given a home that closely matches the respect, awe and wonderment felt for their original site by their creators.

 

"Seeing and learning of the historic native ways, and culture, allowed me to appreciate the diverse regions found within the Columbia River Gorge.  The petroglyph's and pictograph's within the park are a" must see."

To get there, from Interstate 84 take Exit 88 for The Dalles Bridge. Cross north into Washington and drive three miles to State Route 14. Turn east and drive 1.5 miles to the park's entrance.