Relaxing earthquake tour. First day in Montana

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As a pure coincidence, it turns out Pat and I are both ahead of schedule.

He is meeting his daughter Becky, and I am meeting Bruce Tipton in Missoula on July 30.

That gives us several extra days to get to Missoula.

We decided to just do fewer miles per day and enjoy the sightseeing.

Today was the first, and we easy peddled to a campground called Driftwater Resort, situated about 37 miles from our start.

We spent most of the day riding along Hebgen Lake, and it was just beautiful.

In 1959, a 7.5 Earthquake centered on the lake caused 28 fatalities and a huge landslide that blocked the Madison River thus creating a new lake called earthquake lake.

There were numerous turnouts and side trips that allowed us to see how the earthquake altered the area and buried some 28 people on that fateful day.

I took a lot of pictures that might show a little of what happened that day.

At one stop we saw where the earthquake caused 20 foot drop along one of the fault lines.

At another we saw where the highway sunk into the lake and destroyed several lakefront cabins.

And the grand finale was where 50 million cubic yards of Mountain collapsed and fell down into the river.

After that we peddled a few more miles and arrived at Drift Water Resort where Jane had her trailer set up for our arrival.

It was so nice to ride in and be handed a chocolate milk, my favorite after ride beverage.

Once we showered and I set up my tent, we piled in the car and Jane took us on a ride up to a couple of delightful mountain lakes.

I have a couple of pictures to prove it!

Once back at the campsite Pat and Jane cooked up a delightful meal of Pork, Corn, Rice and Applesauce.

Delicious!

Tomorrow we will do another easy ride 40 or so more miles to Cameron.

Should be fun.

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Photos

This is the spot where the main highway sank into the lake.
After the 1959 Hebgen Earthquake this main highway was destroyed. Residents west of here had no way to go back east toward West Yellowstone.

First look at Hebgen lake.
This lake is just 15 miles North of West Yellowstone.

Earthquake Lake
This lake was the result of the quake. Looking into the distance one can see where the mountain slid into the Madison River creating an Earthen Dam that formed the lake.