Hells Canyon

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:59:59 -800

Upriver of Hermiston, the Columbia River flows southward from the Canadian
Rockies; into this river flows the Snake River after passing through today's
sightseeing destination, Hells Canyon. Two hundred million years ago, the
Earth's land mass was concentrated in a super-continent called Pangaea and
nearly all that became Oregon lay underwater in the ocean. An offshore line of
volcanoes slowly built the Blue Mountains; as plates buckled and collided, the
uplift of rock between them and the shoreline pushed the sea bed thousands of
feet above sea level, helping to form the deep canyons that comprise the Hells
Canyon area today. There's quite an altitude difference between top and bottom:
whereas the Snake River is at about 1,250 feet, the Seven Devil Mountains in
Idaho tower some 9,000 feet above sea level. We only saw it from the Oregon
side, at perhaps 7,000 feet.