Palouse Falls

Palouse Falls is a waterfall on the Palouse River in southeast Washington, about 4 miles (6 kilometers) upstream of its confluence with the Snake River. The falls are 200 feet (61 meters) tall. The falls are made up of an upper fall with a drop of roughly 20 feet (6.1 meters), located 1,000 feet (305 meters) north-northwest of the main drop, and a lower fall with a descent of 200 feet (6.1 meters). It is located in the 94-acre (38-hectare) Palouse Falls State Park. These falls and the canyon below are significant features of the channeled scablands formed by the enormous Missoula floods that swept across eastern Washington and the Columbia River Plateau on a regular basis during the Pleistocene epoch.

The original Palouse River flowed to the Columbia River through the now-dry Washtucna Coulee. The Palouse Falls and adjacent canyons were formed when the Missoula floods overtopped the original Palouse River's south valley wall, diverting it to its current path to the Snake River via erosion of a new channel. Interconnected and hanging flood-created coulees, cascades, plunge pools, kolk-created craters, rock benches, buttes, and pinnacles typical of scablands characterize the area. Palouse Falls State Park is located at the falls and protects this unique picturesque location.