Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail

The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail is a network of routes connecting natural sites and facilities that provide interpretation of the geological consequences of the Glacial Lake Missoula floods of the last glacial period that occurred about 18,000 to 15,000 years ago. It includes sites in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. It was designated as the first National Geologic Trail in the United States in 2009.
History.
The National Park Service (NPS) commissioned an environmental assessment, which concluded that creation of a "National Geologic Trail—designating the Floods pathways managed by the National Park Service, with an Interagency Technical Committee representing the federal, tribal, and state agencies and a Trail Advisory Committee to assist the Trail Manager and staff" was the preferred option. Subsequently, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 authorized establishing the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail in parts of Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon and established NPS administration of the Trail.
Geologic basis for the trail.
At the end of the last Ice Age (the Wisconsonian Ice Age), a branch of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet moved out of Canada into the Idaho panhandle region. There it formed a -high ice dam that blocked the mouth of the Clark Fork River, creating glacial Lake Missoula, which impounded greater than of water. The lake extended up the valleys eastward for over . The periodic rupturing of the ice dam resulted in the Missoula Floods – cataclysmic floods that swept across Idaho and Eastern Washington, and then down the Columbia River Gorge approximately 40 times during a 2,000 year period. The flood front swept in a wave across Idaho and Washington at speeds approaching , and Glacial Lake Missoula drained in periods as short as 2 days.
The Columbia River channel downstream was blocked by the Okanogan lobe of the Cordilleran, impounding water in Glacial Lake Columbia. As a result, the floods could not continue down the Columbia River, being forced instead to flood over the highlands of Eastern Washington, vastly transforming the landscape by forming the Grand Coulee, Moses Coulee, the Channeled Scablands, Dry Falls, Palouse Falls and many similar features. The cumulative effect of the floods was to excavate of loess, sediment and basalt from the channeled scablands of eastern Washington and to transport it downstream. Over a period of 2,000 to 2,500 years, the repetition of ice dam failure and flood was repeated 40-60 times, leaving a lasting mark on the landscape.
There are a number of characteristic features that illustrate the effect of these ice dams and power of the resulting floods:
Trail features.
The trail comprises routes throughout the Pacific Northwest where the Ice Age Floods left a lasting impact. Regions and featured sites include 
Several museums in the region feature local aspects of the natural history of the floods.