Road Trip Part III

Good ol' Montana

Alright, so the last post I did was the big finale of the 2 week road trip that I was on with Cody which found us in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for TGR's world premiere of Re:Session. The post before was the launch of our eastbound travels with our first stop in Utah. It may seem like I started with an amuse bouche, a tasty little mouthful a chef teases his guests with to conjure excitement for the delicious journey s/he is going to take them on, and then I abruptly ended with dessert, which I did, but I couldn't help it. Ski movie premieres are so exciting! And truthfully, the order of our journey is unimportant. What is more exciting is sharing the mouthwatering details that came in between, except it wasn't so much a feast for our lips but rather our eyes... and next up on the list is Montana.

Camping on Cliff Lake in Madison County

This State holds a special place in my heart, which is saying a lot coming from a kid from Alaska. When I was a teen and fortunate with the chance to travel to resorts like Big Mountain (now named Whitefish) and Big Sky for ski racing, I deemed Montana the lower 48's "Alaska". On our trip we were in Montana for only a few days and stuck to the southeast corner of the State, but it was magnificent and I think one can get the gist by the pictures.

Cliff Lake

When we came across this lake Cody and I were astonished. All of the dead trees reminded me of the flattened land and dead trees that you come across in the Turnagain Arm in Alaska as a result of the tsunami of the 1964 earthquake. We discovered that in 1959 an earthquake in the Madison River County Area cause 80 million tons of rock to slide (and you can see in these two pictures how the whole mountainside slid) and dam the Madison River. The National Guard was called to the rescue but the natural disaster caused 28 deaths, millions of dollars in damage to the surrounding highways and forests, and a lake now known as Quake Lake.

Quake Lake in Madison County

More of the lake they call Quake

We were so thrilled to be on this trip that we couldn't hold back on the tourist trap photos... more to come!

The Gallatin River

Fishing on the Yellowstone River near Chico Hot Springs