Paul R
Adventurer
My wife and I headed out Friday afternoon up to the Island Park area to the family cabin where we planned on being for opening day of fishing up there...
On Saturday we got up early to head out in the rain to our favorite hole only to find that the winter had changed the river quite a bit and fishing wasn't very good it looked like there was plenty of food in the water and the fish must have been stuffed. But as I was wading in the river I watched a bald eagle fly up the river and perch on a tree right just above me within a few seconds a second bird started dive bombing at it (I'm not sure what kind maybe a hawk or an osprey?) it would swoop down and snap its talons within inches of eagle and then take off and make another pass at it this lasted for about 5 minutes until the eagle finally was fed up and screeched the other bird decided not to do another fly by and took off. I wish I would have brought my camera! The eagle stuck around for a bit, I think he was waiting to see if I would have better luck fishing and leave some unattended, but after a little while he got sick of waiting and took off. With fishing so slow and rainy we went back to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.
We decided to take the Red Rock Pass and go towards Elk Lake and perhaps out towards Dillon, MT and come back out the Kilgore Rd to make a loop back into Shotgun. We passed Henry's Lake and followed the Red Rock Road out till it hits dirt and then continued on passing through a few slightly muddy sections.
Here is the Continental Divide
We continued up the road as it became slightly more muddy than comfortable we really didn't want to rip up the roads, but we ended up making it up to Elk Lake
My dad and I at Elk Lake
We decided to give up making it to Dillon because it was too wet and the road was too soft... no need to wreck things. So went back the way we came, and Mariko (my wife) and I made our way up to Quake Lake. Quake Lake was created in 1959 when a large earthquake hit near the Idaho Montana boarder. It broke apart the side of a mountain above the Madison River and filled in all the way to the other side of the canyon creating a large Dam on the river creating Quake Lake.
Here is what is left of the mountain (Along with Riko thinking it is a little cold)
The Boulder above the truck came from the other side of the mountain during the landslide.
From there we swung up into West Yellowstone to spray off the mud and get something to eat.
On Saturday we got up early to head out in the rain to our favorite hole only to find that the winter had changed the river quite a bit and fishing wasn't very good it looked like there was plenty of food in the water and the fish must have been stuffed. But as I was wading in the river I watched a bald eagle fly up the river and perch on a tree right just above me within a few seconds a second bird started dive bombing at it (I'm not sure what kind maybe a hawk or an osprey?) it would swoop down and snap its talons within inches of eagle and then take off and make another pass at it this lasted for about 5 minutes until the eagle finally was fed up and screeched the other bird decided not to do another fly by and took off. I wish I would have brought my camera! The eagle stuck around for a bit, I think he was waiting to see if I would have better luck fishing and leave some unattended, but after a little while he got sick of waiting and took off. With fishing so slow and rainy we went back to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.
We decided to take the Red Rock Pass and go towards Elk Lake and perhaps out towards Dillon, MT and come back out the Kilgore Rd to make a loop back into Shotgun. We passed Henry's Lake and followed the Red Rock Road out till it hits dirt and then continued on passing through a few slightly muddy sections.
Here is the Continental Divide
We continued up the road as it became slightly more muddy than comfortable we really didn't want to rip up the roads, but we ended up making it up to Elk Lake
My dad and I at Elk Lake
We decided to give up making it to Dillon because it was too wet and the road was too soft... no need to wreck things. So went back the way we came, and Mariko (my wife) and I made our way up to Quake Lake. Quake Lake was created in 1959 when a large earthquake hit near the Idaho Montana boarder. It broke apart the side of a mountain above the Madison River and filled in all the way to the other side of the canyon creating a large Dam on the river creating Quake Lake.
Here is what is left of the mountain (Along with Riko thinking it is a little cold)
The Boulder above the truck came from the other side of the mountain during the landslide.
From there we swung up into West Yellowstone to spray off the mud and get something to eat.
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