Palouse River
| Palouse River | |
|---|---|
Several miles downstream from its fork in Colfax; looking west in 2007 | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Washington, Idaho |
| County | Franklin, Whitman, Adams, Latah |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Rocky Mountains |
| • coordinates | 46°58′07″N 116°27′31″W / 46.9685°N 116.4587°W |
| Mouth | Snake River |
• coordinates | 46°35′24″N 118°12′55″W / 46.59000°N 118.21528°W |
• elevation | 541 ft (165 m) |
| Length | 167 mi (269 km) |
| Basin size | 3,303 sq mi (8,550 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | river mile 19.6 at Hooper |
| • average | 599 cu ft/s (17.0 m3/s) |
| • minimum | 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
| • maximum | 33,500 cu ft/s (950 m3/s) |
The Palouse River is a tributary of the Snake River in Washington and Idaho, in the northwest United States. It flows for 167 miles (269 km) southwestwards, primarily through the Palouse region of southeastern Washington. It is part of the Columbia River Basin, as the Snake River is a tributary of the Columbia River.
Its canyon was carved out by a fork in the catastrophic Missoula Floods of the previous ice age, which spilled over the northern Columbia Plateau and flowed into the Snake River, eroding the river's present course in a few thousand years.