IAFI Upcoming Events Calendar

Quick description:  Our focus on this trip will be on alpine glaciation from various sources in the Eastern Cascades near the lower Lake Wenatchee Area.  Enroute, we will mix in big picture geology, weather and climate, and human uses in the area.  The trip will begin on the beach in the southern portion of Lake Wenatchee State Park. Detailed schedule and the topics to be covered: 10:00  Stop 1—Lake Wenatchee State Park—Topics: Bedrock geology; weather & climate; Wenatchee River alpine glacier.    11:00  Depart 11:30  Stop 2—Northeast of Fish Lake —Topics:  Fish Lake lobe of the Wenatchee River glacier; moraines & erratics; moraine-dammed lakes; Glacier Peak & Mt. St. Helens tephras. 12:15  Depart 12:45  Stop 3—Chiwawa River Valley Overlook—Topics: Chiwawa River alpine glacier; Mad River outlet glaciers; declining contemporary glaciers. 1:45  Depart 2:00     Stop 4—Meadow Creek Valley Overlook—Topics: Meadow Creek/Napeequa glaciers; Dirtyface Mountain cirques; Napeequa River capture by White River; moraine-dammed lakes. 2:45     Depart 3:15     Stop 5—Deep Creek at Morrow Meadow—Topics: Glacial meltwater, faulting, lateral valleys, and ice age lakes. 4:00     Depart for home Logistics: This trip is free and open to the public. You will need a Discover Pass for Stop 1. After Stop 1, we will drive on a mix of paved and good quality gravel forest roads.  A Subaru-type AWD vehicle should do fine on the gravel roads. I strongly encourage you to consider carpooling; parking will be limited at each of the stops and lengthy strings of automobiles can be unwieldy on narrow forest roads.  We will take short hikes at Stops 2, 3 and 4.  By short, I mean 0.25 mi or less at each stop.  The hiking terrain at Stops 3 and 4 will be fairly steep.  Stops 2 and 4 will involve hiking off trail through recently logged areas.    No restroom or picnic facilities are available along our field trip route after Stop 1.  Therefore, you will need to use the great outdoors if you need to go.  Plan on eating lunch/snacks on the road or at the stops.  There will not be a formal lunch stop. Dogs and kids are fine to bring as long as they are well-behaved. Dress for the weather.  June weather here can be sunny and hot to rainy, windy & cool.  A pdf of the field guide is already posted on my CWU website at https://www.cwu.edu/academics/geography/_documents/karl-lillquist.php.  Scroll down the page to “Field Guides”.  You will find it under “Lower Lake Wenatchee Area”.  Feel free to download and bring it on the field trip in digital format or print it out. The Ellensburg Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute will also provide ~40 hard copies of the field guide for the trip.  If you want a hard copy, please consider a cash donation to help defray the costs of the field guides (each costs about $15 to print).    Questions? Email me at lillquis@cwu.edu or leave a phone message at 509 963-1184.  Emails are best as I only check that phone a couple of times each week. 

At the end of the last Ice Age an ice dam in northern Idaho created Glacial Lake Missoula stretching 3,000 square miles around Missoula, Montana. The dam burst and released flood waters across Washington, down the Columbia River into Oregon before reaching the Pacific Ocean. The Ice Age Floods forever changed the lives and landscape of the Pacific Northwest. The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail is a network of routes, sites, and interpretive centers that follow the pathways of the repeated Ice Age megafloods released from Glacial Lake Missoula between roughly 18,000 and 15,000 years ago. These floods reshaped the Pacific Northwest on a continental scale, carving features such as the Channeled Scablands, Grand Coulee, Dry Falls, Palouse Falls, and the Columbia River Gorge. It spans four states—Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon—and links dozens of geologic landmarks that preserve evidence of these enormous floods. Presented by Don Chadbourne, geologist and board member of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter No registration required. Call Librarian Ali Spahn with any questions at 208-683-2979.

At the end of the last Ice Age an ice dam in northern Idaho created Glacial Lake Missoula stretching 3,000 square miles around Missoula, Montana. The dam burst and released flood waters across Washington, down the Columbia River into Oregon before reaching the Pacific Ocean. The Ice Age Floods forever changed the lives and landscape of the Pacific Northwest. The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail is a network of routes, sites, and interpretive centers that follow the pathways of the repeated Ice Age megafloods released from Glacial Lake Missoula between roughly 18,000 and 15,000 years ago. These floods reshaped the Pacific Northwest on a continental scale, carving features such as the Channeled Scablands, Grand Coulee, Dry Falls, Palouse Falls, and the Columbia River Gorge. It spans four states—Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon—and links dozens of geologic landmarks that preserve evidence of these enormous floods. Presented by Don Chadbourne, geologist and board member of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter No registration required. Call Librarian Ani Matosian with any questions at 208-689-3976.

Every student in the Northwest should experience the incredible science story of the megafloods that shaped our landscape and history. To help bring this story to life, the Ice Age Floods Institute, Engaging Every Student, and our partners are excited to invite K–12 educators to free special training events. Thanks to support from the Avista Foundation, we are offering free hybrid workshops where you will gain access to valuable resources designed to inspire students to investigate their local environment. New Curriculum Resources Participants will explore a new Ice Age Floods Detectives phenomena-based curriculum with supporting presentations targeted to 4th grade, as well as hands-on investigations from the National Park Service's Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum. Both explore the megafloods that shaped the Northwest and are adaptable for grades K–12 Free STEAM Workshops for K–12 Educators Details (In-person with options to join us via Zoom): Location: Richland, WA: Mon., June 22, 2026 (register here: tinyurl.com/zbrhtpht) Featuring: Engaging classroom and field-based activities, including exciting ways to model Floods phenomena Stories of the megafloods that transformed the Northwest 18,000–12,000 years ago at the end of the Last Glacial Period Up to 7 Washington STEM Clock Hours and/or PDUs for license renewal in Oregon and other states Schedule: All workshops 9:00 am–4:00 pm (or half day) 9:00–12:00 | Interactive workshop featuring new Ice Age Floods Discovery curriculum: targeted to grade 4 and adaptable for K–12 12–12:30 | Working lunch (provided) 12:30–3:30 | Interactive workshop featuring Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum adaptable for grades K–12 3:00 or 3:30–4:00 | Nearby interpretive field studies with experts Cost: Free Ice Age Floods Institute mini-Grants available  To cover materials, transportation, STEM clock hour fee, etc. Learn more: iafi.org/k-12grants. Help Spread the Word: We encourage you to share this informative Ice Age Floods Workshops flyer with other educators to let them know about this opportunity!  For questions, comments, or ideas on where we might offer additional training, please contact Rick Reynolds, M.S.Ed., at rick@engagingeverystudent.com. Thanks for your interest and all you do to inspire our students to investigate our environment!  

Every student in the Northwest should experience the incredible science story of the megafloods that shaped our landscape and history. To help bring this story to life, the Ice Age Floods Institute, Engaging Every Student, and our partners are excited to invite K–12 educators to free special training events. Thanks to support from the Avista Foundation, we are offering free hybrid workshops where you will gain access to valuable resources designed to inspire students to investigate their local environment. New Curriculum Resources Participants will explore a new Ice Age Floods Detectives phenomena-based curriculum with supporting presentations targeted to 4th grade, as well as hands-on investigations from the National Park Service's Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum. Both explore the megafloods that shaped the Northwest and are adaptable for grades K–12 Free STEAM Workshops for K–12 Educators Details (In-person with options to join us via Zoom): Location: Spokane, WA: Mon., June 24, 2026 (register here: tinyurl.com/y78vcde9) Featuring: Engaging classroom and field-based activities, including exciting ways to model Floods phenomena Stories of the megafloods that transformed the Northwest 18,000–12,000 years ago at the end of the Last Glacial Period Up to 7 Washington STEM Clock Hours and/or PDUs for license renewal in Oregon and other states Schedule: All workshops 9:00 am–4:00 pm (or half day) 9:00–12:00 | Interactive workshop featuring new Ice Age Floods Discovery curriculum: targeted to grade 4 and adaptable for K–12 12–12:30 | Working lunch (provided) 12:30–3:30 | Interactive workshop featuring Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum adaptable for grades K–12 3:00 or 3:30–4:00 | Nearby interpretive field studies with experts Cost: Free Ice Age Floods Institute mini-Grants available  To cover materials, transportation, STEM clock hour fee, etc. Learn more: iafi.org/k-12grants. Help Spread the Word: We encourage you to share this informative Ice Age Floods Workshops flyer with other educators to let them know about this opportunity!  For questions, comments, or ideas on where we might offer additional training, please contact Rick Reynolds, M.S.Ed., at rick@engagingeverystudent.com. Thanks for your interest and all you do to inspire our students to investigate our environment!  

Geologist Michael Hamilton talks about the geology of the Spokane area which reveals an interesting part of the glacial flood story. When the glacial ice dam failed, the area immediately downstream received deposits of sediments and various landforms that provide clues of what happened when the dam burst. What we see in the flood deposits around Spokane also suggest insights on the sequence and size of the outburst floods. Presented by Michael Hamilton, geologist and board member of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter No registration required. Call Librarian Grace Lippman with any questions at 208-773-1506.

 Giant Current Dunes or MegaRipple Marks – One of Bretz’ most important pieces of evidence for catastrophic flooding was the “giant current dunes.” These large-scale bedforms appeared as patterns of parallel ridges and swales on many aerial photographs in the flood channels in the scabland of Washington, but had escaped recognition from the ground because of their size.  Giant Current Dunes are visible west of Clark Fork near Castle Rock; however, the most prominent and visible Giant Current Dunes are located several miles east of Spirit Lake along Hwy 54 where the highway cuts through the dunes showing their undulating profile. The location of many of the telephone poles on the crest of these dunes accentuates these landforms. The dunes form transverse to the current direction, and form cusps that are convex upstream, with arms that point downstream. Furthermore, the size of the cusps appears to decrease in the direction of lower velocity. Internally, the dunes consist of gravel and pebble foresets. Giant current dunes exhibit an asymmetrical profile with the downstream (lee) slope steeper than the upstream slope. Crests range from 20 to 200m apart and heights range from 1 to 15m (Baker and Nummedal, 1978) and are among the largest measured throughout the Floods area. The Spirit Lake current dunes can also be easily recognized from the air by their characteristic pattern, accentuated by vegetation. This dune field is immediately in the path of the breakout from Lake Pend Oreille, and experienced some of the highest energy flows. Presented by Dr. Linda McCollum, president of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter No registration required. Call Librarian Nicole Ferris with any questions at 208-623-5353.

How do geologists know when the ice age floods actually occurred in the Spokane area? One method is to date the large flood-rafted erratic boulders. We explore the ages of the floods and the methods used to determine their dates and present newly gathered dates from the Spokane region revealing when the floods happened.  Presented by Glenn Cruickshank, vice president of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter, and Dr. Jim O'Connor, USGS No registration required. Call Librarian Kathleen Kennedy with any questions at 208-772-5612 x126.

How do geologists know when the ice age floods actually occurred in the Spokane area? One method is to date the large flood-rafted erratic boulders. We explore the ages of the floods and the methods used to determine their dates and present newly gathered dates from the Spokane region revealing when the floods happened.  Presented by Glenn Cruickshank, vice president of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter No registration required. Call Librarian Tiffany Berg with any questions at 208-687-1029.

Update on 5/21/26: Sorry, but due to a heavy summer schedule we've had to postpone this event until next year to give us more time to plan. Our chapter is planning a special late‑summer gathering on Saturday, August 28, 2027 in honor of J Harlen Bretz, whose birthday falls just a few days later (September 2). Bretz’s groundbreaking work on the Ice Age floods reshaped the scientific understanding of the Northwest—and we think that deserves a celebration. We’re still shaping the details, but expect a relaxed, community‑friendly event that highlights the Bretz legacy and the remarkable landscapes he helped the world understand. More information will be posted as plans develop.   He mapped the scablands bold and bright, Said “Floods did this!” with all his might. For thirty years they told him “No”… ’Til evidence began to flow. So join us as we celebrate The man who made the floods make sense — A pre‑birthday bash for J Harlen Bretz, Who proved the skeptics wrong (immense!).