Montana

Our campground was near the junction of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.  We spent the next two days driving narrow paved roads and miles of jolting gravel lanes to remote places we never knew existed.

This adventure started along Hebgen Lake  in Montana where campers went to sleep under a clear sky on August 17, 1959.  As midnight approached, a 7.5 earthquake brought down 80 million tons of rocks and boulders from the mountains above blocking the Madison River.   The land tilted dropping the north shore nineteen feet and leaving the south shore dry.  Huge waves topped the dam threatening its collapse. but the dam held.  The slide created Earthquake Lake.

 Twenty-eight people died, some never found.  The impact of the quake was felt as far away as Colorado, the Dakotas, Washington and Canada. 

We learned this story at the Visitor Center where the film “A Force of Nature” detailed the events of that night including the rescue of most of the vacationers.   An emergency spillway was dug because engineers feared reverse pressure of the water would cause the upstream dam to fail but the story has not ended as the lake level lowers due to erosion of the earthen dam.  It will eventually drain itself and Quake Lake will disappear.  And the area is still at risk for earthquake.  This is the downstream view.

We drove along Hwy 287, which was destroyed in 1959, and viewed what is now a beautiful area though scars remain of that horrific night.  Dead trees stand where once they grew along valley floor. 

 A bald eagle watches for dinner.

The next day we took that jolting drive to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.  Locals decry the refuge for removing grazing land from use, but this happened in 1935 and we think the ranchers were happy to sell at that time.  Ranches still abut the refuge and there is no shortage of beef around as proven by the cow jams we faced on the road.

The refuge was set aside as a breeding ground for birds and animals especially the then almost extinct trumpeter swan.  On our drive we saw the now recovering swans from a distance.  We saw and heard lots of Canada geese.  What we saw up close (they seemed to pose for the camera) were yellow-headed blackbirds.

Pronghorn antelope leaped across the road and raced through the meadows.

This E. B. White quote was on the wall at the Visitor's Center .

  Our campground is surrounded by the Centennial Mountains and overlooks Henry Lake.  Sunsets are lovely.