The White Cliffs

On May 30th and 31st, 1805 the Corps floated through what is now known as the "White Cliffs." On July 5th, 2017 we floated through this section with a guide. We photographed the fascinating panorama of geological formations in the hope they would convey the awe and wonder generated by these visions. Not a chance, We include some of them here as a reminder, but actually, Lewis's description does a better job.

LEWIS May 31, 1805. "The hills and river Clifts which we passed today exhibit a most romantic appearance. The bluffs of the river rise to the hight of from 2 to 300 feet and in most places nearly perpendicular; they are formed of remarkable white sandstone which is sufficiently soft to give way readily to the impression of water; two or thre thin horizontal stratas of white freestone, on which the rains or water make no impression, lie imbeded in these clifts of soft stone near the upper part of them; the earth on the top of these Clifts is a dark rich loam, which forming a graduly ascending plain extends back from 1/2 mile a mile to a mile where the hills commence and rise abruptly to a hight of about 300 feet more. The water in the course of time in decending from those hills and plains on either side of the rier has trickled down the soft sand clifts and woarn it into a thousand grotesque figures, which with the help of a little imagination and an oblique view at a distance, are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone buildings having their parapets will stocked with statuary; columns of various sculpture both grooved and plain, are also seen supporting long galleries in front of those buildings; in other places on much nearer approach and with the help of less immagination we see the remains or ruins of eligant buildings; some collumns standing and almost entier with their pedestals and capitals; others retaining their pedestals but deprived by time or accident of their capitals, some lying prostate an broken others in the form of vast pyramids of connic structure bearing a sereis of other pyramids on their tops becoming less as they ascend and finally terminating in a sharp point. nitches and alcoves of various forms and sizes are seen at different hights as we pass...As we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantmnent would never have and end; for here it is too that nature presents to the view of the traveler vast ranges of walls of tolerable workmanship, so perfect indeed are those walls that I should have thought that nature had attempted here to rival the human art of masonry had I not recollected that she had first began her work..."

The beginning of our river trip.









The White Cliffs

The eight sisters

Snoopy

The debaters

The bison head

The white is sandstone and siltstone produced by sedimentation in the inland sea that once covered this area. The dark inclusions are said to be volcanic material which was forced upward and filled crevices in the stone. Some are called plugs, and the fence like forms, called dykes,  are formed by vertical cracks filled with hard volcanic material, then the softer stone weathers away. We are told that this is not the hard glassy matter which comes from melted rock, but is reddish material from the earths's core. That is said to be iron, so perhaps that acounts for the reddish color.

We also saw some wildlife

Can you pick out the deer?

Two immature bald eagles in a really scruffy looking nest

White pelicans taking off.  This one is for you, Jan.

The guide, Craig Madsen, brought along his wife and grandaughter, Mia. Mia is not quite 6,  and found the 102 degree heat a little enervating.

We are sorry our pictures do not adequately represent the grandeur of the White Cliffs, but we feel really lucky to have seen this scene that is exactly the way it was when the Corps passed by, and at a place that one can only visit in the way we did, in a 46 mile float down the Missouri River.

Our next destination is Great Falls.