Local Ice Age group planning fall outing

The Palouse Falls Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute has scheduled its fall outing, and registration is now open.

The fall outing, titled “Changing the Course of the Palouse River,” will take participants on a bus tour north of Washtucna to Staircase Rapids Saturday, Oct. 1. The group will explore two spillways, the first including the Palouse Canyon, HU Canyon, Palouse Falls and Lyons Ferry. The second spillway is known as Devil's Canyon. It will include stories related to the Ice Age floods and the region's early history.

Lloyd Stoess, chapter president and one of the leaders of the expedition, said the area is “pretty spectacular.” Also leading the tour is Paul Dunster, chapter vice president.

The outing will begin with bus loading at Washtucna High School, with the bus leaving promptly at 8:30 a.m. It will return at 4:30 p.m. Pick ups can also be arranged ahead of time in Colfax and LaCrosse, which must be noted when registering.

Stoess said the take off from Washtucna will allow the group to see more than other groups have been able to in the past, which took off from Othello.

“We're going to be able to get all the highlights,” he said.

Stoess said the Palouse Falls Chapter will have a booth at this year's Palouse Empire Fair with more information available there, as well as registration. The group has reserved two busses for the trip.

Cost of registration is $60 for Ice Age Floods Institute members, or $75 for non-Ice Age Floods Institute members. Teachers and students can also register for a $35 fee. The fee covers the cost of a field trip guidebook, lunch and drinks and the chartered bus.

Online membership to the institute is available at iafi.org. Registration forms for the outing are also available there, and those can be completed by mail. Mailing address for registration is on the forms.

A traveling lecture series will be presented sometime prior to the outing as a pre-field trip lecture. Stoess said people are welcome to just attend the lecture, just attend the outing or attend both.

“If you do both, you get a whole lot more out of it,” he said.

The traveling lecture date will be announced later. Stoess said all of the details about that will be determined by the fair.