Thursday August 17, 2006

Earthquake Lake

This morning we headed down to the Earthquake Lake area. In 1959, the Yellowstone area was rocked by a severe earthquake, 7.5 on the Richter scale, and the epicenter was pretty much where we've been staying the last few days.

There was a landslide that blocked off the Madison River Canyon, forming a new lake, and killing 28 people.

During the quake, Hebgen Lake tilted - the north shore sank below the water line, and the south short rose. Waves in the reservoir crested over the dam at the west end of the lake, damaging it, but not destroying it.

At many point, the old highway though the area was destroyed either by landslides, or simply sinking under the water.

Looking out across Earthquake lake, you can see the trees that now have their bases underwater.

The landslide was caused when a wall of dolomite boulders broke loose, and the boulders and everything behind them slide down the valley.

When the rising levels of Earthquake Lake threatened the dam upstream, the Army Corp of Engineers created a spillway for the new lake:

When the lake filled, many of the cabins in the valley began floating on the surface. As the water level fell, a Ghost Village was formed by all these damaged, abandoned buildings.

Along Hebgen Lake, there was a small resort that was partially submerged when the land shifted. There's a rather dramatic story posted about how one of the buildings was occupied by a woman and her dog who were dumped into the lake. While escaping, the dog saved her from falling into new fissures that opened up, some as deep as 15 or 20 feet.

In all the times we've been out here since I was a kid, I can't remember ever visiting this area before.

On the way back, we stopped at the Campfire Lodge Resort for lunch. I ended up having breakfast, and it was excellent. Its a very small resort/resturant along the highway, and its worth taking some time to grab a meal there.

We're heading out in the morning, so the rest of the day is probably going to be packing and getting ready for the trip home, dad headed off to Idaho a bit.