Ring Dike Craters, Odessa

Ring Dike Craters. I’m not making this up! Several years ago, I purchased a book by Marge & Ted Mueller – ""Fire, Faults & Floods"" from the University of Idaho Press, which details the topography of the entire area affected by the Bretz and Missoula floods. In it are detailed descriptions of the various affects of the basalt flows and subsequent floods, and where to find examples. Ring dike craters seemed like a really neat thing to go see. So I did.

Ring dike craters are a little difficult for me, a layperson, to describe without being charged with plagiarism – if you buy the book, you’ll see excellent diagrams. Ring dikes were formed by huge pools of still-molten basalt lava that lay beneath a cooled and hardened surface-layer of lava. These underground molten pools spewed up and out through cracks in the hard layer, creating dikes. The Bretz Floods then came along and tore off the original top hardened layer of basalt, then washed out the molten lava, and what remained were the solidified dikes in a ring formation. They look like great doughnuts laying all over the place.

Several can be seen by taking either a very short stroll off the road, and the largest, Cinnamon Roll, it’s called, can be seen from the road. The picture is probably boring – but if you go see it in person, it’s exciting, as is the twisty road leading to the area.

A very deep crater, Cache Crater, is accessible by a short gravel path. 2 others are in the area, and accessible via a short cross-country stroll through BLM land. Cache Crater and Wild Garden Crater signs are easily spotted from the road.

This was part of a 4 day road trip. The last day, as I was breakfasting at a hotel in Othello, I met a geologist who is assigned to work on the Sprague Lake signage of the new Federally commissioned Channeled Scablands trail. It was approved by Congress about 2 years ago. From what I understand, all the roads leading to the various points of interest already exist; however viewpoints to various formations will be created or existing ones upgraded. Signs such as the one my new friend is working on will be put in place, and of course a map of the road routes will be provided. It was exciting to meet him, and his wife was only too glad to turn him and his geo-rambling over to me for an hour while she read the paper and chatted with her daughter. According to this gentleman, the signs will be in place by Fall, 2006. I don’t know when the project officially opens.

To see the craters: From Odessa, continue north 5.2 miles on Hwy 21. Cinnamon Roll is on the corner of Hwy 21 and Trejbal Back Road. (the property opposite the Roll is privately owned). There are more craters on the Lakeview Ranch (BLM property) – see Alan Bauer and Dan Nelson’s book, ""Best Desert Hikes"" for directions and trip descriptions to Lakeview Ranch. See Muellers’ ""Fire, Faults and Floods"" for directions to various ring dikes within the Lakeview Ranch.