Route to West Yellowstone, MT from Deer Lodge, MT

Friday, September 4, 2015

Today we move to West Yellowstone, MT.  It is raining in Deer Lodge, MT as we pull out.

The low lying clouds are cool looking.

As we drove through Butte we saw this Fly-Fisherman with a fish on his line.  

As the day proceeded, the sky began to clear.  It was wonderful to see the sun shine.

Our route followed the Madison River for over half the drive.  It was really beautiful.  Along the way we drove through this rustic little town named Ennis.  We knew there was something special happening, because of the vendor tents we saw on the way through town.  We decided that after we got parked in West Yellowstone, we would drive back and check it out. 

Hebgen Lake is a very long & large lake.  We traveled beside this lake.  We started seeing signs about Earthquake Lake.  We stopped to investigate.

We stopped and learned that on August 17, 1959, there was a large earthquake in the Rockies here.  The earthquake caused a huge landslide resulting in the destruction of dams.  This led to devastating flooding of campgrounds and riverside homes and loss of life.  The landslides and flooding  dramatically changed the shape of Hebgen Lake.

We saw this sign, so turned in.  There was more description of the same earthquake, landslide and flood.  We did not understand why they said the lake "tilted".

As we turned into the "Tilted Lake" area, we also saw this sign.  The picture below shows the road we drove to get to the next information sign.

As you can see, the road runs along side the lake.

If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can read a little about the "Lake that Titled".


As we proceeded away from Hebgen Lake, we could see more mountains and grassy fields below the mountains.

The fences are interesting!

Beautiful fields and mountains and clouds!

On the last 8 miles to West Yellowstone, we started seeing signs like this.  ☺

Ennis, MT will be in the next post.