Quake Lake
Lake · West Yellowstone, Montana
A lake that did not exist before twenty-three minutes to midnight on 17 August 1959, when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake dropped most of a mountainside into the Madison River canyon. Eighty million tons of rock crossed the valley in under a minute, dammed the river and drowned the campgrounds upstream. Twenty-eight people were killed and nineteen of them are still under the slide, which was never excavated. The visitor centre stands on top of it, looking down at the scar and the dead trees that are still standing in the water sixty-odd years later.
US Highway 287, West Yellowstone, Montana, 59758, United States
The lake, the overlooks and the interpretive pull-outs along US 287 are accessible year round and free. The Earthquake Lake Visitor Center, built on the slide, is open roughly late May to mid-September and charges a small fee or is free with an America the Beautiful pass; it is closed and unstaffed outside that season. Forest Service campgrounds nearby are seasonal.