Virginia City, Quake Lake, and Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Thursday morning we left Boulder Creek campground to go explore Virginia City and figure out where to spend the next four nights before we could enter Yellowstone National Park. Labor Day weekend is not a good time to show up unexpectedly at one of the most popular national parks! We finished driving the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway and descended into the broad Grasshopper Creek valley. We had to drive east, then north to Twin Bridges, and the south again to get around the Ruby Range. Too bad we don't have four wheel drive, we might tackle some of these cross range roads. Greg keeps joking about an anti-gravity machine to get us places. That would be nice!

Farm in the Grasshopper Valley

Wetland restoration below Beaverhead Rock along the Beaverhead River

Looking down the Beaverhead Valley

We finally turned east again at Alder Gulch to reach Nevada City and Virginia City. Gold was discovered in the gulch in the spring of 1863. The area boomed and Virginia City became the territorial capitol. First we drove along Granite Creek where in 1890-1922, dredges rolled down the gulch, chewing up the river bed and leaving long rows of waste material in their search for more gold. The first town we came to was Nevada City where a few shops were open, but the remainder of the buildings have been relocated from around Montana.

Twin Bridges mural

Looking up the Ruby Valley toward Nevada City

Windrows of gold dredge tailings in Alder Gulch

A short way up the road from there is Virginia City. We thought it was a ghost town, but apparently it has been continuously occupied since the gold rush. Now it exists to attract tourists, so it is a weird mix of restored buildings set up as museums, others used for current businesses, and others still waiting to be restored. We parked at the visitor center, which has a railroad in front of it that goes the short distance to Nevada City and back. They have devised plenty of ways to part you from your money, none of which we were interested in. We spent an hour or so wandering up and down the main street reading plaques and looking in the historical buildings. There is a stagecoach tour, an old firetruck tour, walking tours, a vaudeville theater that was playing Dracula, the Brewery Follies, panning for gold, historical reenactments on the weekends, the short line railroad, four restaurants, and a hotel. Of course, the usual gift shops lined the boardwalk, too.

The most interesting building was the Hanging Building, one of the oldest buildings in Montana. Apparently the lawlessness in Virginia City triggered a group of men who called themselves the Vigilantes, to go after the criminals. Immediately after a quick trial by the judge, they hanged five men from the rafters of the unfinished building. They were lauded by the town for ridding the region of road agents who had robbed and killed miners and highway travelers for years.

Hanging Building

Diorama of vigilante hanging - sort of like 3D animation

New hood ornament?

Printing room for the territorial newspaper

Women's boardinghouse and bordello

Tours on Horseback

We left Virginia City in search of a spot for the night. At Ennis we turned south with the Madison River as it cut through the broad valley between the Gravelly Range and the Madison Range. Off the road and along the river we found South Madison campground, a BLM site across from the Palisades that formed the river bank on the other side. We settled into the last river front site in the small campground and watched the thunderstorm clouds build first on the high peaks behind us and then across the river over the Palisades. Finally it seemed that we were surrounded by storms, near and far. Our vantage point along the river valley gave us long distance views. The lightening flashed, thunder bellowed, the rain pelted, and the wind rocked us.

The Madison River below the Pallisades at our South Madison BLM campground

Our camp along the Madison

Thunderstorms moving in

 The wild night turned into a sunny, clear morning. We couldn't stay longer. There was no water there, and our waste tanks were getting full from many days of dry camping. So we pressed on toward West Yellowstone to see what we could find for the next three nights. We continued to follow the Madison River as it turned into the steep walled valley holding Quake Lake.

The Madison River Canyon below Quake Lake

Looking up Quake Lake from the top of the landslide

Stopping at the visitor center we learned the gruesome story of how this lake was formed. In August of 1959, a 7.3 earthquake hit the area and the valley wall on one side slide to the other side, blocking the river and forming the lake behind the huge pile of rubble (about 1/2-mile wide across the valley, about 1/2-mile long down the valley, and up to 400 feet deep). After the quake, a spillway was dug to lower the lake to about 100 feet deep for fear of the natural dam failing catastrophically. The sad part of the story are the 28 people who died there, 19 still under the rubble and many injured among the 250 campers. There were three full campgrounds, numerous campers along the sides of the road, and cabins and lodges in the narrow picturesque valley. The quake occurred in the dark, near midnight, and the water rose quickly in the newly trapped Madison River.

Looking down along the landslide and the excavated spillway for the Madison River

Looking across at the landslide scar

The landslide carried this 3,000-ton boulder across the valley and 400 feet up the opposite side.

We spent time hiking up on the rubble to view the memorial stone and get a better idea of the extent of the changes in the landscape. The lake itself is pretty, but eery with dead trees still poking out of the water. Traveling along the lake we reached the east end and the Beaver Creek campground. High up on a hill we found a perfect campsite to spend the next three nights. Perfect for a geologist! I figured if he thought we were safe there, it would be okay. This campground survived the quake, and nearby along the highway is the spot the survivors hiked to in order to reach high ground. The only problem is that we have no phone or internet.
 

We picked a spot, got water, dumped trash, (we have also been in pack it out campsites with no dumpsters), and drove a few miles to the nearest marina to dump our tanks. Back at Beaver Creek we grilled out, and Greg made plans for a bike ride on Saturday.

View from our camp at Beaver Creek

Our campsite

Ferocious wildlife, or maybe a quail

The rain started during the night and continued non-stop all day yesterday, not just showers but downpours, like last weekend in Fort Peck! Today it has been raining all day. It stopped briefly a while ago, but every time Greg goes out for a walk, it starts again. Rain magnets... He just went out again...

60 hours straight of heavy rain, thunderstorms, even pea-sized hail

Aspens during 18 minutes of sunshine

Grasshopper

End of summer fireweed

I am getting serious cabin fever. Tomorrow we drive to West Yellowstone, do a few errands, hopefully post the last two blogposts, and head into Yellowstone National Park. We won't know if we have any kind of connections there until we get there. A few days at Yellowstone, then a few at Grand Teton and we will be ready to head west to southern Idaho and the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Time for a volcano fix, and hopefully drier weather! (Here comes the rain again. Greg hasn't learned his lesson yet!)