Big Sky, MT & Earthquake Lake (Day 5)

I reached Big Sky at approximately 10pm on Monday night and was exhausted a) from hiking almost 24 miles that day and b) driving 4.5 hours up from Grand Teton National Park.  I slept fairly well but did not want to do anything strenuous on Tuesday.  So I hung out with my parents and we went down to Bozeman to do some shopping (groceries and REI - no trip is complete without a stop at REI).  We then grabbed lunch at Famous Daves and headed out to Earthquake Lake down by West Yellowstone.

Earthquake Lake is the sight of the largest earthquake in Montana.  On Aug. 17, 1959 a 7.3-7.5 earthquake hit approximately 15 miles north of West Yellowstone and caused one of the largest landslides in US history.  The quake was so large that it shifted the lake approximately 17 degrees leaving one side of the lake flooded and the other with miles of lake bottom visible from the opposite shore.  Below are a couple of links to check it out as well as some pictures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Hebgen_Lake_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Lake
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gallatin/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5127785

After checking out the visitors center and getting my all important National Park Passport Stamp we headed back to the condo for dinner and an early night before our planned 30 mile bike ride into Yellowstone on Wednesday.