Earthquake Lake

We really like our Baker's Hole camp site, and we were prepared to stay here as long as possible. Without water and sewer hook-ups, we have been conserving water to stretch our tank capacity. Now that we feel we have thoroughly explored Yellowstone, we had another destination while we were in this area. We had heard about the big earthquake of 1959, and the changes that were made in a matter of minutes. In the middle of a full-moon night in August 1959, an earthquake literally split a mountain apart just 25 miles from our camping spot near Yellowstone. 

The picture above is the open face of the split mountain. The entire side of the mountain slid down--covering the campground at its base.  Mark is in the bottom left hand corner of the picture below, standing on the rubble that filled the canyon. 28 people died in the terrible landslide that sent half a mountain into the valley at 100 miles per hour that night.

Besides covering the campground, it also dammed the Madison River that ran through this valley. In just a minute, Earthquake Lake was suddenly formed. Those trees were in a dry valley in 1959. Fifty-eight years later the trunks are still standing, but now in the water of Earthquake Lake.

There is a visitor center built on the pile of rubble that slid off the mountain that night in 1959. We visited the exhibits and watched the film. Then we walked the paths to get other views of the changes made that night. This large boulder was part of the mountain that split apart, and it literally flowed a half-mile on a river of smaller stones when the mountain blew apart. Today it is the Memorial Boulder, with the names of the 28 victims on the bronze plaque beside Denisa.

Another large boulder is nearby, and far across the valley we can see the mountain it was once a part of.

With the Madison River dammed up by the earthquake debris, the lake quickly filled up. Very soon a channel was dug in the debris to allow the river to continue its course down across the plains. This is the river that we kayaked on a week ago, about ten miles from here.

It was an interesting morning, learning about an earthquake that changed so much so quickly. We made a driving loop back to West Yellowstone, passing some new territory. It looks like fall is on its way, as we see leaves changing color in the mountains.

During our time near this popular national park, we have noticed an interesting phenomenon. It seems that Asian travelers are such a big part of the Yellowstone tourist economy, that we see signs all over town using oriental lettering that we don't understand.

As we saw more and more oriental signs around West Yellowstone, we also noticed that there were five Asian restaurants in this small tourist town. It is also interesting to see that even though the daily specials at the Old Faithful cafeteria changed every day, it always included a teriyaki bowl.

But one of the most obvious places to see the impact of the Asian visitors is in the restroom. From traveling in Asia, we know that many bathrooms there have "squat toilets." Most public restaurants around Yellowstone have signage to remind travelers to sit instead of stand on American commodes.

We have enjoyed spectacular weather in our six-day stay near West Yellowstone, but the forecast is changing. We see a couple days of much-needed rain in the forecast, followed by plunging temperatures and snow. It looks like it is time for us to head south.