Mountain snow melts Plip plop plip The drops flow together as trickling streams and then unite as one river For thousands of years the roar and thunder of this river tumbled through steep canyons carrying rocks branches gravel and winding a twisting path through the forest Always it flowed north to the sea sharing its gifts with animals plants and people who cared for it in return
Millions of years ago before Washington became a state before humans walked the earth before wooly mammoths roamed powerful forces transformed rocks under the sea into mountains that touched the sky Rocky craggy rough and steep Ice fields blanketed mountains and lowlands and fed smaller glaciers that marched slowly forward carving the narrow canyons and broad valleys where the Elwha River would soon flow
HEADWATERS where a river starts MOUTH the river's end usually where it meets the ocean or a lake TRIBUTARIES rivers that feed into another river CHANNEL the shape of the river's path RIVERBANKS the land on either side of the river
