Friends of Badger have completed installing the 4th interpretive sign about Lake Lewis Isles on Candy Mountain – one more to go, plus three more for Badger Mountain.
Lake Lewis was a temporary lake that repeatedly formed during the Pleistocene Epoch as Ice Age flood waters (mostly from Glacial Lake Missoula) backed up behind a constriction at Wallula Gap. The Lake Lewis Isles name is given to several basalt hills south and west of Richland, Washington, whose crests stuck up above the maximum flood level (1,200 -1250 feet) of temporary Lake Lewis, making them islands. These temporary islands include Badger Mountain, Candy Mountain, Goose Hill, and Red Mountain.
Only the top 380 feet of Badger Mountain poked out above Lake Lewis. Icebergs and other floating debris (such as mammoth carcasses) drifted into quieter waters and ran aground along the shorelines of these islands, leaving behind giant boulders of exotic rock types (erratics) from up to several hundred miles away.
The scene of Lake Lewis, with its temporary Isles protruding out of the lake and occasional icebergs carrying erratics, can probably be best be imagined from one of the Badger Mountain or Candy Mountain trails, or along Interstate Highway I-182 as it passes through Goose Gap approximately 3 miles southwest of Richland.
We encourage you to explore the trails and imagine the vistas of recurring temporary Lake Lewis. Our interpretive signs will help you peek into the distant past and the incredible Ice Age Floods story.