Nick on the Rocks

The majestic river canyon meanders across the central Washington desert — apparently blasting directly through three large ridges. What came first? The river or the rock?

The Stuart Range near Leavenworth is one of the most beautiful mountains in all of the American West — and yet its granite contains clues that continue to puzzle geologists. Did the granite really form in Mexico and move a thousand miles north to central Washington?

Washington’s gold rush isn’t over. Find out how gold came to Washington and where active mines still produce gold — if you know how to find it.

5,600 years ago, a Mt. Rainier eruption sent a wall of mud careening down the White River Valley to Tacoma. The Osceola Mudflow created the Enumclaw Plain by burying a formerly rugged Puget Lowland with hundreds of feet of volcanic mud — a plain now home to over 500,000 people.

Some of the largest lava flows in the world can be found in the deserts of Eastern Washington. The massive lavas erupted from giant cracks that can still be found today, if you know where to look.

One of the largest waterfalls in the history of Earth happened in Washington state. Three-times the width of Niagara, the volume of the Ige Age falls was 10-times the combined flow of all the rivers on Earth.