1. Washington State History

2. Entry Task
Make a list of places you have visited in the State of Washington
Which of these places was your favorite to visit and why?
Use complete sentences
Make sure to put your name and date on the top.

3. RAIN!!!!!
“Oh you’re from Washington? Does it really rain all the time there?”

4. Rain Shadow

5. The Olympic Peninsula
The Olympic Peninsula was formed during the last Ice Age.
Huge conifer rain forests.
Porcupines, grizzly bears, and mountain goats, oh my!

6. Puget Sound Lowlands
Glacier ice formed the place that we know today as Puget Sound
People have lived in this area for thousands of years.
A mastodon hunting site was found in Sequim that dates all the way back to 12,000 B.C.

7. The Cascade Mountains
Run from north to south and divide eastern Washington from western Washington.
It is covered by one of the world's only temperate rainforests
On the east side of the mountains, the forests are mostly pine trees and the temperatures in winter and summer are more extreme.
Contain four of Washington's five active volcanoes! Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams all call the Cascade Range home. These volcanoes are part of what geologists call "the Ring of Fire."

8. The Okanogan Highlands
Many minerals are mined in this region — even silver and gold.
The Okanogan also boasts one of the world's largest man-made resources, the Grand Coulee Dam.
Contains enough concrete to build a highway from Seattle to Miami!
Snake River video

9. Columbia Plateau/ Basin
This area produces some of the best wheat in the entire world. Its fertile soil supports many different types of farming — from orchards to cattle.
River basin and plateau formed through mass flooding during and after the ice age.
The power of floods
Time lapse of a dam
The floods began all the way west in Montana where melting ice covered thousands of miles, creating Lake Missoula. Glaciers in Washington had created giant dams of ice. Every so often, however, the dams broke, releasing giant waves of water that poured over the Columbia Plain as they rushed towards the sea. Each flood lasted as long as two weeks! Water traveled as fast as 45 miles an hour—so fast that the waves stripped the dirt from the scablands. Icebergs carrying huge Canadian boulders rode the floods all the way to Oregon.

10. Geology of WA
Mt Saint Helens