Othello, WA

The Drumheller Channels are unique because no single channele or major cataract where formed. The Drumheller Channels are the most spectacular example in the Columbia Plateau of basalt "butte-and-basin" channeled scablands. This is an erosional landscape characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep-sided hills surrounded by a braided network of (usually) dry stream channels. The landscape is the result of dramatic modification of the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain by late Pleistocene catastrophic glacial outburst floods—the Missoula Floods. These floods occurred at a scale remaining unparalleled on earth, either in the geologic record or in historical account.

So striking and extreme is this landscape that in 1986, the National Park Service designated the Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark. National Natural Landmarks recognize sites that contain outstanding biological and/or geological resources, regardless of landownership. They are selected for their outstanding condition, illustrative value, rarity, diversity and value to science and education. In fact, so important and unique are the Missoula Floods and the resulting landscapes that Congress has designated the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail.