In the Wild

     Chad is currently taking a Natural Disasters class and this last week they went on a field trip to a couple of different spots around the Yellowstone area that have experienced some sort of natural disaster. I naturally demanded that Chad take me to these spots on Saturday so that we could do something outside in the amazing summer weather that has finally found Southeastern Idaho. So we packed up a picnic and headed out!
    Our first stop was to the Teton dam just outside of Sugar City. I was trying to figure out how this was a "natural disaster" sight when the dam was man made, but apparently because it was made out of dirt and rock it constitutes being natural. Anyone who has lived in this part of Idaho knows that the dam breaking in the 70s was a pretty big deal. What is crazy to learn is that the dam had only been in use for four months before it broke; just long enough to back up a huge amount of water and flood the entire valley.

     Our next stop took us to Quake Lake. Granted it was like 30 minutes north of West Yellowstone and took like two hours to get there but the drive was worth it. It was such a nice day and Montana is beautiful!

 

   

  Below is Quake Lake. It was originally a river that was blocked by a landslide created by 7.5 magnitude earthquake in August of 1959. Before workers were able to dig out a channel to release the water, it backed up and created this lake.  

This was an actual Richter scale that was working at the little museum.

     

These boulders landed here after the quake and slide and haven't moved since because they weigh over 3000 tons!

This is on the other side of the landslide/blockage.

     We only ended up spending a few minutes at quake lake because it ended up being really windy and not fun, but we got some good pictures.

Yay for picnics!

     After our little picnic we headed over to some places where homes had been prior to the quake. A lot of homes were completely destroyed, by not only the earthquake, but by the resulting waves from the river as well.

Chad of course had to find an out-house that was still standing...

 ... and thought he needed to use it.

     

Oh! And we can not forget all of the great wildlife we encountered as well!

Can you see what this last one is?

IT'S A BEAR!!!

      As we were coming up out of the ravine and rounding a corner here is this bear sauntering across the road; until it heard our poor little car struggling to get up the hill with the pedal to the floor! Chad could hardly contain himself, and thus the reason why this is the best picture we could get. The bear wasted no time getting off the road.
    We had a really fun time getting to know the area better and soaking up some sun. I cant even begin to describe the joy of finally having summer here! I love being able to get up at six in the morning and it be light outside. And then having 16 hours of daylight because it doesn't get completely dark until 10:00pm!!