Field trip set to explore ice age geology near Tri-Cities
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 month, 1 week AGO
The Ice Age Floods Institute will lead a field trip around the Tri-Cities to see examples of the region’s unique geological history.
COURTESY PHOTO/ICE AGE FLOODS INSTITUTE
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | March 5, 2026 3:00 AM
RICHLAND — The past is right beneath our feet, and a field trip planned for the Tri-Cities area aims to bring that home, according to an announcement from the Ice Age Floods Institute.
“The purpose of this is to help local people understand what they’re living on and what’s beneath your feet,” said retired geologist George Last, who’s leading the Geology of the Tri-Cities on March 28.
The trip will begin at the Richland Community Center and tour high points and quarries to get a good look from both high and low at the geological effects of the ice age. Another stop involves some ice age erratics in plain sight, at a traffic circle in downtown Kennewick, Last said.
The final stop will be at the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site, Last said.
“We can look at exposures of at least seven ice age floods,” Last said. “And then the loess deposits, and of course, get some information about the Columbian Mammoth that’s been found there and is being excavated.”
The Columbian Mammoth roamed eastern Washington throughout the last ice age, called the Pleistocene Epoch, according to the website of the Mid-Columbia Basin Old Natural Education Sciences Research Center Foundation, which maintains the mammoth site. The first mammoth bones were discovered there in 1999, and the foundation has accumulated hundreds of ice age specimens, including mammoth bones, from the site.
The trip is open to the first 25 people, and the last day to sign up is March 25, according to the announcement. Most of the trip will be done in vehicles, but there will be as much as 1.3 miles of cross-country hiking on unimproved game trails, and some of the areas the trip will cover are steep, with uneven terrain and loose gravel. Local wildlife may also be out and about that day, Last said, including rattlesnakes, wasps and such, so attendees should be aware of that and keep an eye out. Participants should plan to bring their own lunch and water, and wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes.
The itinerary is subject to change, Last said.
Participants will meet at the Richland Community Center at 8:45 a.m. to be sorted into carpools, according to the announcement. The trip will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“(People say), ‘Here’s this agate, here’s this really nice piece of petrified wood,’” Last said, ‘But it’s the story about where that agate came from and how that petrified wood was developed (that’s interesting).”
For more information or to register, visit https://bit.ly/TCFieldTrip.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Family drama
‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ opens Friday in Quincy
QUINCY — The Biblical story of Joseph will come to life in song this weekend, as Quincy Valley Allied Arts opens “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” Friday. “(The writers) originally wrote it for a kids’ school,” Director Brian Higgins said. “You have a bunch of different genres of music. There’s a country-western song in the show. There’s a sad song. There’s a little bit of early rap elements. It’s kind of a tour through different musical genres to keep kids interested.” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” follows a story familiar to many from the Bible. The patriarch Jacob has 12 sons, but his clear favorite is Joseph, the second-youngest, who has dreams that his destiny is to rule over his brothers. Naturally, the other 11 are not huge fans of this idea, and when Jacob gives Joseph a fancy coat of many colors, that proves too much for them and they sell him into slavery.
Youth Dynamics to mark 30th anniversary
MOSES LAKE — Youth Dynamics will hold a three-day party this week to mark 30 years of Christian outreach. “I was talking to the president of Youth Dynamics, and I (said), ‘I’d really like to do a celebration weekend,’” said Moses Lake Youth Dynamics Director Sean Sallis. “It’s not a fundraiser; we’re not going to have an auctioneer here selling items or anything like that.” The event will celebrate four pillars of Youth Dynamics’ ministry over the years.
Farm fun
Palmer’s Adventure Farm features friendly animals, play equipment and apple artillery
MOSES LAKE — There’s a whole lot to do at Palmer’s Adventure Farm, about five miles east of Moses Lake. We have a train for the kids to go on,” said Shane Palmer, who owns Palmer’s Adventure Farm with his brother Kyle Palmer and their wives Vanessa and Janelle. “We added animals this spring. We’ve got a mini-Highland cow. We’ve got goats and bunnies and donkeys, and they can feed the animals. We just put in two jump pads for the kids. They’re air pillows inflated with a big blower and a fan, and the kids jump on it like a trampoline and have a blast. We’ve got a mega-slide (and) a double barrel slide into a corn pit. It’s like a sandbox, but it’s full of corn and the kids play in it.” Palmer’s Adventure Farm started out four years ago as Strawbelly’s Straw Maze on Wheeler Road, Shane said.