Earthquake Lake

Earthquake Lake. These trees have been
submerged for 60 years.

We started off the day with a morning boat ride and fishing trip. Once again, the fish of Hegben lake are safe from the mighty Cawley fishing clan. We had a good time trying, but came up empty. Each of the kids took a turn driving the boat, which they enjoyed and we got a different view of the lake. The sky was much clearer today. It rained some last night. Maybe that helped clear out some of the smoke, but it's the clearest day we've had since we got here.

After lunch, Jim, Kate and I headed to Earthquake Lake, just down the road from Hegben Lake. It's an incredible thing to see. In August, 1959, there was a 7.5 magnitude earthquake centered just a few miles down the road. The quake caused a huge landslide, basically the entire side of the mountain slid into the Madison River. It causes hurricane force winds to sweep through the valley, blowing away cars and bulidings, then caused a huge tidal wave that swept what was left away. There was a campsite right at the bottom of the mountain that was buried in rubble, and the rest of the valley was under water. The landslid also cut off the river and instantly created a 4-mile lake, Earthquake Lake.

It so so strange to see. The trees that had been along the river are now, of course, underwater in the middle of the lake. They are all dead, but they are still standing there, 60 years later. You can also see the "Ghost Village", which is the remnants of a resort. The cabins and lodge were washed about 1/4 mile downstream in the surge and came to rest on the opposite side of the water. It's all very surreal and pictures don't do it justice.

The lake. and you can see the missing part of
the mountain int he upper right. 

Closer view of where the mountain slid. 

This is the mountain the fell into the river.

This is another shot of the the slide area.
This picture is from the opposite side of the valley,
standing on top of the debris field.
86 million tons of rock anr rubble. 

When the mountain let go, the whole thing
went in one big piece and was traveling
over 100 mph. It hurtled into the valley
and 400 feet up the mountain on
the other side. The visitor center and
memorial are on the opposite side
of the valley, built on top of the
debris field. 

So tomorrow, we leave the Yellowstone area and head to Helena to visit Julie, Dan, Megan and Alex for a few days!!!

We stopped for dinner at Buffalo Bills,
where you eat in covered wagons. LOL.