The Palouse Hills are formed from silt eroded from and washed down by the periodic breaking of enormous ice dams on the ancient Lake Missoula. These floods swept periodically across eastern Washington at the close of the Ice Age about 15,000 years ago. Similar to the formation ripples of sand dunes at the beach but in a much larger scale, these hills cover a large area of Eastern Washington. Steptoe Butte from where this photograph was taken was a protrusions of bedrock from a much earlier age by millions of years that preceded the Missoula Floods .

With the combination of fine soil and seasonal rain fall the region is ideal for growing wheat and legumes without special irrigation. From a vantage point on Steptoe Butte near Colfax, Washington, one can lookout on a patchwork "quilt"of farms and ranches under a variety of cultivation. This particular image was taken in mid-summer shortly after sunrise and facing Northeast.