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Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
View towards the Columbia River and the state of Washington. The Rowena Dell/Rowena Creek is visible on the left.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Tom McCall Nature Preserve ...
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The 271-acre Tom McCall Nature Preserve is a plateau called "Rowena Plateau". It is located on the Oregon side of the Columbia River at River Mile (RM) 180, just west of Rowena Crest and east of the Oregon town of Mosier.
Tom McCall Nature Preserve was named for one of Oregon's governors, Thomas Lawson McCall. Ownership and management of the preserve includes The Nature Conservancy,
Mayer State Park and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
There are two trails on the preserve. The 1-mile plateau trail begins at the interpretive sign at the entrance to the preserve and crosses Rowena Plateau to spectacular cliff edges. The trail also circles a permanent pond. A great view of the
Rowena Creek drainage and
Rowena Dell can be had from the cliff edge. The 3-mile McCall Point trail to the top of McCall Peak (open May through November) begins from the south side of the turnaround and gains 1,000 feet in elevation and provides a spectacular view of the area.
Wildflowers are abundant in the spring.
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Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken September 18, 2005.
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Rowena Plateau ...
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The Tom McCall Nature Preserve and nearby Rowena Crest are located on a high basalt mesa known as the "Rowena Plateau". During the end of the last ice age over 200 feet of raging flood waters (today known as the
Missoula Floods) ripped across this plateau stripping it clean. Over the next ten thousand years this surface was covered by 3 to 4 feet of loess (wind blown ash, most likely from nearby Mount St. Helens volcano) which eventually eroded into the mounds. These mounds, wildflower-covered in the spring, dot the surface of the basalt flow. They are commonly referred to as "biscuit mounds" or "biscuit scabland".
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Rowena Plateau, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Loess mounds, Rowena Plateau, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Loess mounds, Rowena Plateau, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Flowers and erosional mounds, Rowena Plateau.
View from Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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On the trail ... Tom McCall Nature Preserve ...
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Wildflowers abound in the spring but a VERY WINDY DAY !!!!!! ... flower photography was next to impossible !!!
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Rowena Plateau, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Lupine, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Rowena Dell is in the background.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Balsamroot and Lupine, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Balsamroot, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Trail, Rowena Plateau, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Along the trail, looking towards Lyle, Washington.
View from Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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Rowena Dell, with the Columbia River in the background.
View from Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2007.
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September 2005 ...
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Rowena Dell, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
View looking downstream Rowena Creek at Rowena Dell.
Image taken September 18, 2005.
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Trail, Tom McCall Nature Preserve, Oregon.
Image taken September 18, 2005.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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