So we left the Tetons for Yellowstone NP, expecting to catch a campsite somewhere in the park. It seemed reasonable. Grand Teton has gone to a first-come/first-served system, and late morning or early afternoon arrivals had good luck. Not so Yellowstone. YNP is still on the accursed reservation system, and, after searching three different campgrounds, we gave up and drove on to West Yellowstone, another town we have visited often. At this point, satisfied with our "vacation," we had decided to head on to Missoula and get on with things there. Considerable wildfire smoke appeared in the direction of Bozeman, down the Gallatin River, so we decided to do the Madison River instead. En route, we came upon Hebgen Lake, an old friend from snowmobiling days, and then Earthquake Lake, which we'd driven by several times but really never stopped to appreciate. A beautiful Forest Service visitor center explains what happened there in August of 1959.
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Long story short: the big 1959 quake caused a giant landslide which dammed
the Madison; a number of people died and many more were displaced; the lake
remains, but Mother Nature is having her way, and it is slowly draining |
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| The slide |
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| Helpful model |
