The Snake River Plain...Desert?

Today I decided to take my lunch break away from both home and work. Those of you who check in probably have figured I am pretty open about some things. I left myself scratching my head is this too much or about right to disclose.

Well there are places that God leaves for us to get away from the mundane, boring, hectic and insane world we live in.

I have lived in desert land all my life. The American Southwest is most famous for the dust devils, sage brush,   yucca, cacti and other flora and fauna of all kinds. Did you ever stop and see the greater desert of North America?

It extends beyond the traditional five. The Great Basin, The Mojave, The Colorado Plateau, The Sonora, and The Chihuahua.

Shoshone Falls Park, Idaho

One of the most interesting deserts of the Northwest North American Continent is the Snake River Plain Idaho.

This large lava field covered in thin topsoil, sagebrush, grassland, pinion juniper at higher elevations is an anomaly that isn't often looked at as a desert.

Located in southern Idaho and stretching from Hell's Canyon on the west to the Yellowstone plateau on the east is largely thought of as farm land or barren. But it has all the major characteristics of a continental desert.

It is in a large rain shadow of the Cascades and northern Sierra Nevada to the west. There are smaller ranges within the Snake River Plain but they more rim the plain than cross it.  The Rocky Mountains lie to the north, northeast and east.

Near Shoshone Falls Park, Idaho on the Snake River.

Millions to just 2,000 years ago this area was highly active with lava flows and earthquakes. The Yellowstone Caldera  is closely associated with the Snake River Plain formation.

The "Nile" of the Pacific Northwest the Snake River flows from the highlands of Wyoming, across southern Idaho to form the western Idaho and eastern Oregon state line.

If there were no Snake River, there would be far less agriculture in the area because of the thin top soil and basaltic lava bed on which much of south Idaho rests.

Snake River, Idaho

The area is extremely dry with precipitation similar to the Great Basin. Ringed by mountains on all sides gives the area a dry atmosphere. The Snake River provides the silt for topsoil and the water necessary to grow crops in the Snake River Plain.

The Snake River provides not only agricultural water, and culinary water. A series of dams provide flood control, hydroelectric power, and recreational use making the area much more habitable than it otherwise would be.

Hells Canyon at the end of the Snake River Plain is the deepest gorge in the United States, deeper than the Grand Canyon and the central feature of Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.

In this desert area the porous lava beds absorb water into aquifers and  eventually the water finds it's way to places like Snake River Canyon where there is no more room and the water seeps out in many waterfalls along the canyon walls.

Snake River Canyon, Idaho

Underside of Perrine Bridge, Twin Falls, Idaho

The Snake River Canyon on the left was the site of one of the famous jumps by late legend Eval Keneval. The jump was attempted, but was botched and Keneval never attempted the jump again. The ramp is still visible today built up for the .5 to 1 mile jump the daredevil was trying to attempt.  But there are other adrenaline junkies as well. The Snake River Canyon has two famous bridges. The more famous, the Perrine Bridge has thousands of BASE jumpers that come to take the 500 foot jump and hope their parachute deploys. 

Snake River Canyon, Idaho

Above is the superstructure of the Perrine Bridge. It is a steel arch structure bridge built in 1976 to replace an older model torn down.  The traffic deck is on the top of the structure. Heavily used the arch structure distributes the weight of the bridge, and traffic into the canyon walls from the center of the structure out from the middle of the arch, creating a similar effect of both ancient and modern arch bridges.

BASE jumpers usually take the east side of the bridge and plunge off the bridge. From there due to the limits of height they have 3 seconds from flight to deployment of the parachute. There is little room for error.  Botched jumps have resulted in fatalities that are a known and accepted risk among the jumping community. The Perrine Bridge is the only structure in the United States with unlimited jumping 365 days per year with no permit. Many jumpers miss the landing zones established and have to quickly ditch in the river. But the river has saved many jumpers from near certain death or short of that life changing injuries.  Sadly the other type of jumper of the suicide nature often take this bridge as a way out with no purpose to make a return trip. BASE jumpers take suicidal jumpers and help in spotting the suicide jumpers and getting them help.

On the border of the Snake River Plain, basaltic hills or low mountains rim the Snake River Plain. This transition zone on the north and east leads to the Rocky Mountains and to the Great Basin Ranges in on the south.  The City of Rocks National Preserve is near the Utah State line and famous among rock climbers.

Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

On the north of the Snake River Plain is Craters of the Moon National Monument. This area has recent geologic history of lava flows just 2,000 years old. Some scientists who study the area say it is just a matter of time until the lava comes to the surface again. Only Hawaii has younger lava flows in the United States and Craters of the Moon has the next oldest in the 48 Contiguous States.

As mentioned above sagebrush, rabbit brush, grasses and other scrub take hold on the barren rock leaving much of the lava fields exposed. Even older fields across the plain punch through the surface due to shallow top soils and some believe the Lake Bonneville Flood of about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

When Lake Bonneville burst through a natural dam site on the present day Utah-Idaho state line the flood scoured in days what we see today as the Snake River Canyon and Hells Canyon, eventually finding its way up the Snake River flow way into the Columbia River and out to see. Some speculate that is why the older lava canyon such as the Snake River Canyon with much older and stronger rock looks like it was "blasted" just yesterday.

Head to any barren area or outlying area of the Plain and you will find the prickly pear cacti and some small barrel cacti as well. Cacti are native to every US state except Hawaii. Most are concentrated in the West and Southwest of the United States and southern Canada. Cacti do not need much soil to get a foothold and some need just a good rock base.

So the desert is all around south Idaho, far eastern Oregon and southern Washington State. One could draw a line at the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains and all around the Snake River Plain forming a ring along the Great Basin and Palouse in northern Idaho and Eastern Washington and get a rough estimate of the size of the Snake River Plain which with little but even rainfall, hot summers, cool dry winters, a true desert with a most unusual distinction. It is not basin and range like most desert areas. It is a volcanic desert with hundreds of old volcanic spatter and cinder cones and lava breaches in the Earth's crust.

Next time you get a potato from Idaho you can thank the Snake River and the unique desert that surrounds it, the Snake River Plain