Columbia River/Lake Wallula, WA
On October 19th, 1805, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the Corps of Discovery passed “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” on their way down the Columbia River toward the Pacific coast. This rock formation, comprised of columnar basalt and located 28 miles below the confluence with the Snake River, was unusual enough to warrant mention by Capt. Clark and today is protected as the primary feature of Hat Rock State Park.
We dropped anchor near the park this afternoon and boarded our Zodiacs for the short trip to shore. We took this opportunity after a day of cruising to stretch our legs and enjoy a walk led by our staff naturalist around this remarkable geologic formation. Along the way we encountered one of the most showy of the desert flowers – the arrow-leaf balsamroot. This perennial herb grows 1 to 3 feet tall, sometimes in rather dense and spectacular populations, and flowers from April to July. Lewis and Clark collected two specimens of this plant – one on April 14th, 1806 at which time Clark wrote that “after dinner we proceeded on our voyage. I walked on Shore with Shabono on the N.Side through a handsom bottom. met Several parties of women and boys in Serch of herbs & roots to Subsist on maney of them had parcels of the Stems of the Sun flower.”
It’s a wonderful experience to walk around a landscape feature noted by the captains nearly 200 years ago and to try to imagine how they felt when it first came into view. Were they amused by its shape or did they debate among themselves what it most resembled? One sometimes wonders, too, if they found the bright, cheerful plant pictured above, one of 178 plant species first introduced to western science by these pioneering naturalists, beautiful, or perhaps reminiscent of a favorite flower from the home country they had been separated from for so long.
On October 19th, 1805, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the Corps of Discovery passed “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” on their way down the Columbia River toward the Pacific coast. This rock formation, comprised of columnar basalt and located 28 miles below the confluence with the Snake River, was unusual enough to warrant mention by Capt. Clark and today is protected as the primary feature of Hat Rock State Park.
We dropped anchor near the park this afternoon and boarded our Zodiacs for the short trip to shore. We took this opportunity after a day of cruising to stretch our legs and enjoy a walk led by our staff naturalist around this remarkable geologic formation. Along the way we encountered one of the most showy of the desert flowers – the arrow-leaf balsamroot. This perennial herb grows 1 to 3 feet tall, sometimes in rather dense and spectacular populations, and flowers from April to July. Lewis and Clark collected two specimens of this plant – one on April 14th, 1806 at which time Clark wrote that “after dinner we proceeded on our voyage. I walked on Shore with Shabono on the N.Side through a handsom bottom. met Several parties of women and boys in Serch of herbs & roots to Subsist on maney of them had parcels of the Stems of the Sun flower.”
It’s a wonderful experience to walk around a landscape feature noted by the captains nearly 200 years ago and to try to imagine how they felt when it first came into view. Were they amused by its shape or did they debate among themselves what it most resembled? One sometimes wonders, too, if they found the bright, cheerful plant pictured above, one of 178 plant species first introduced to western science by these pioneering naturalists, beautiful, or perhaps reminiscent of a favorite flower from the home country they had been separated from for so long.
