Sunday June 4th 2017

After three straight days touring Yellowstone National Park, I took today off from the go go driving, walking and viewing. Instead I had slept until 9AM then had a leisurely breakfast. Around noon I ventured out to check out some of the territory north of the village of West Yellowstone. It was also a scouting trip for some of the route I will take out of town on Thursday.

Earthquake Lake formed by the 1959 Montana earthquake. The view is from on top of the rocks that plugged the canyon.

Looking northwest from the end of the canyon at the rolling range land.

What I found was an area devastated by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in 1959. The Madison River Canyon downriver of Hebgen Lake was blocked when a large part of the south side mountain, at the end of the canyon, collapsed into the canyon. A new lake 190 feet deep called Earthquake Lake was formed by the block river and additional water that went over the dam at the end of Hebgen Lake.

Earthquake Lake in an area that used to be the Rock Creek Campground now under water.

Over 250 people were trapped by the Earthquake and 28 were killed. Herculean efforts were undertaken to get to those trapped. This included air drops of supplies followed by helicopter rescues. Helicopters weren’t as common fifty eight years ago as they are today. Most of the people trapped were tourists enjoying the mid August weather in the National Forest. The flooded area included two campgrounds.

The area beyond the canyon was gently rolling range land. Buildings in the area are mostly made of logs with metal roofs. Once upon a time logs were the easily available resource, but I suspect today it is more of a style thing. Milled lumber is probably just as readily available, if not more.

One of the clouds moving in at the end of the day.

Back at camp this afternoon, I got ambitious and cooked Scalloped Potatoes and Ham for Dinner. It came out pretty good in my Convection Microwave oven. The only complication with using the convection oven is that I had to heat the can of corn on the stove instead of in the microwave.

Late this afternoon the clouds moved in. It had been sunny all day. The TV reported severe thunderstorms to the west. This evening the sky darkened and the wind blew. A brief minute or two of rain followed. The sun came back out within half an hour.