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Important Bio-Geological features are clearly visible from this high mountain peak above Edgewater: the strikingly-clear corridor running through the Kirksland was possibly carved along an old outlet from a glacial lake by thousands of years of migrations of both animal and human populations coupled with the rapid seasonal erosion prevalent in this glacial-silt topography.
Note the channel is flowing South, nearly opposite to the present flow of the Columbia, and is not flowing south-west down into the present river basin like the present creek ravines. This dates the channel to the time before the Columbia started to flow north.

Present-day animal trails and roads exibit the same effect of creating a channel in the soft soil which is then washed deeper by spring run-off, wind and rain over the years until a surprisingly deep trench can be formed.There are several recent examples of erosion trails in the Kirksland. The size of the herds of wildlife, historically, were variable. Hector's journal reports massive piles of Wapiti antlers along the Columbia River, indicating a major hunting region for the native peoples yet he saw no deer at that time.
Hector had noted the "Vermillion Trail" during his travel to Windermere Lake, at one time this trail could have been called that because of the two creek names which still persist today: Big Vermillion and Little Vermillion Creeks. "There is also a reference to Luxor Pass as Little Vermillion Pass on a federal government map of Kootenay Park, circa WWI." B.C. Archieves