The University is set against a backdrop of rolling farmland in a region of the Inland Northwest called the Palouse. This scenic landscape is known for its fertile agricultural soils formed from windblown silts deposited over ancient lava fields. The hills and valleys, which characterize the region, were carved by floodwaters that periodically coursed through the Spokane Valley thousands of years ago when glacial Lake Missoula breached its ice dam.
Geologists refer to the area as the channeled scablands.
The landscape around the City of Cheney and the EWU campus is a mosaic of features created by these processes. Rolling fertile hills, mostly in crops, but also occasionally timbered, are juxtaposed with low areas consisting of basalt escarpments, timbered flats, meadows, marshes, and lakes. The core campus occupies a gently sloping hillside adjacent to downtown Cheney, approximately 2,400 feet above sea level. West of campus, hills planted with cereal crops border the University's stadium and athletic fields. An elevation change of about 150 feet from west to east creates a series of terraced landforms across the campus.