Lake Coeur d’Alene, like other lakes surrounding the Spokane Valley and Rathdrum Prairie, was formed by the Missoula Floods, most recently 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. The Purcell Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet flowed south from Canada, carving the basin of present-day Lake Pend Oreille and damming the Clark Fork river. The impounded river repeatedly filled to form Glacial Lake Missoula and broke through the ice dam, resulting in massive floods that filled the Rathdrum Prairie area with sand, gravel, and boulders. See July 16, 2016 on this web site for more details.
Although a beautiful lake on the surface it is also a National Superfund Site due to lead and cadmium pollution from silver mining.
Mining in the Coeur d’Alene Basin
The Canada Geese are doing a good job today adding their own organic pollution.
I also took a side trip to see giant ripples from the Missoula flood. One picture I will call ripple one. I walked up to ripple one and took a picture that shows one pickup at ripple 2 and one pickup at ripple 3. These things are big!
I also visited a Japanese Garden in Spokane.
