EPOD - a service of USRA
The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.
The Snake River’s Formidable Hells Canyon
December 28, 2022
RayB_HellsCyn245c_07oct22 (003)
RayB_HellsCyn221c_07oct22 (003)
Photographer: Ray Boren
Summary Author: Ray Boren
The Snake River winds its way 1,036 miles (1,667 kilometers) from
Yellowstone National Park through western North America before it joins
the Columbia River, and their shared waters roll on to the Pacific
Ocean. Along the way, the river’s course forms the wavy border between
the U.S. states of Idaho and Oregon, where it is a centerpiece of the
Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and Hells Canyon Wilderness.
As illustrated in the first photograph, taken on Oct. 7, 2022, from
near the Hells Canyon Overlook on the river’s west side in Oregon, the
rumpled landscape plunges from the heights of the Seven Devils
Mountains in Idaho. High flatlands give way to rocky slopes incised by
side canyons and ravines. A persistent forest fire is smudging the
horizon to the right, in Idaho. A second image, taken the same day from
the west shore, features a placid stretch of the Snake River below
Oxbow, Oregon, near where the Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon dams
impound elongated reservoirs for hydroelectric generation.
The chasm is considered the deepest gorge in North America, dropping
8,000 feet (2438 meters) when measured from Idaho’s He Devil Peak
(9,393 feet/2863 m.) to the river. The northbound Snake is not quite
visible from this viewpoint. The area is roadless between Hells Canyon
Dam on the south and Hells Gate to the north, near Clarkston,
Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho — twin cities named for William Clark
and Meriwether Lewis, leaders of the exploratory Lewis and Clark
Expedition of 1804-1806.
Native tribes have occupied the region for thousands of years, but the
long, steep-sided Snake River gorge hampered and sometimes thwarted
early explorers, trappers and westbound pioneers. Nevertheless, the
name “Hells Canyon” apparently was not applied to the area until late
in the 19th century. The terrain, however, definitely had “hellish”
beginnings. The oldest rocks are evidence of underwater volcanoes added
to the North American continent by tectonic forces about 150
million years ago. Additional volcanism, as recently as 6 million years
ago, slathered the landscape during a series of extensive basaltic
lava flows.
Hells Canyon, Idaho Coordinates: 45.371389, -116.638333
Related EPODs
The Snake River’s Formidable Hells Canyon Joggins Fossil Cliffs
Salt Pans of Torre Nubia Glacial Striations in Victoria,
British Columbia Below the Wasatch Range’s Storm Mountain
Beautiful Alpine Lakes in the Sierra Nevada Range
More...
Geography Links
* Atlapedia Online
* CountryReports
* GPS Visualizer
* Holt Rinehart Winston World Atlas
* Mapping Our World
* Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
* Types of Land
* World Mapper
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