What the Boulders Know

One of my favorite places on the Snake River is Guffey Bridge, at Celebration Park just south of Melba. The ground surrounding the bridge is covered in piles of loose boulders.

I always wondered how they got there.

Seventeen thousand years ago, Lake Bonneville covered much of northern Utah. Fed by rivers and creeks from the Wasatch Front, the lake had no outlet. It rose until it spilled over Red Rock Pass in southeastern Idaho. The spill eroded the pass, unleashing a catastrophic flood. 

In eight short weeks, Lake Bonneville dropped 350 feet. Enough water to fill the entire Grand Canyon.

The torrent surged through the Snake River Canyon, tearing boulders from its volcanic walls. The stones swirled and tumbled in the flood, rounding as they rolled, before settling where the water slowed. Geologists call them melon gravel.

Sometimes, when I visit Celebration Park, I touch these boulders, hoping to feel their stories through my fingertips.

They never speak to me. But I like to imagine the terrible flood that ripped them from their canyon homes as I walk among them.