Earthquake Lake

Earthquake Lake, usually called Quake Lake, lies in the Madison River canyon about 45 road miles south of Ennis on US-287. It did not exist before the night of 17 August 1959, when the Hebgen Lake earthquake brought down the side of a mountain into the canyon. The slide, about 80 million tons of rock, killed campers at the Rock Creek campground and dammed the river, and the lake behind it filled within about a month. Altogether 28 people died in the earthquake. The US Army Corps of Engineers cut a spillway through the debris so the natural dam would not fail.

Coming from Ennis, you drive up the Madison Valley, past Cameron and the long stretch of river that anglers call the 50-mile riffle, until the valley narrows into the canyon. The first sight is the slide itself: a wall of broken rock across the canyon, with the bare scar of the mountainside above it and the river pouring out over the spillway below. The road climbs over the slide, where the Earthquake Lake Visitor Center stands (closed for the season since mid-September; see its own page for opening dates), and then follows the north shore of the lake for several miles. Grey, drowned trees still stand in the water, more than 65 years later. Near the upstream end are the remains of the Ghost Village, cabins of a former camp that were carried off by the rising water and later stranded, and in the canyon the Refuge Point trail leads to the ridge where survivors sheltered on the night of the quake.

For anglers, the canyon is a distinct piece of the Madison. Below the slide the river runs fast and turbulent for a few miles, the roughest water on the upper Madison, before it settles toward the Raynolds Pass fishing access site, which has a boat ramp and a few primitive campsites at the head of the 50-mile riffle. Quake Lake itself holds rainbow, brown and some cutthroat trout; there is a boat launch where the lake meets the highway, and the drowned timber that shelters fish can wreck a motorboat's propeller. Autumn is often the most dependable season on the lake, with less wind.

The Madison's rules are strict and change often: parts of the river below the lake close in spring to protect spawning rainbows, much of the upper river is catch-and-release with artificial lures and flies only, and fishing from boats is restricted on some sections. Read the current Montana FWP regulations for the Madison before you fish.

US-287 stays open in winter, but this canyon is cold, snowy and icy for months, and the lake freezes. The drive from Ennis takes about 50 minutes each way; combine it with the visitor center in summer or a stop in West Yellowstone, about 27 miles beyond.