I live in Helena and so travel to Missoula and points north a few times a year. I particularly pay attention to the highway from Garrison toward the upper end of the lake and up into Missoula where you can see the geology and almost visualize the flow of the water as it drained and got squeezed at Hellgate Canyon before spewing into the Missoula valley. You can see the places along the drive where there was a turn and the water would scrub the rocks that still do not have my growth on them 15,000 years later... The sand bars so huge as you drive up through the cuts and can imagine the ebbs and flows or each place. The stupendous nature of the event is almost too much. My wife doesn't have the same interest I do and just nods when I point things out and I say things like, Imagine the water up to there and see what it did. I did get her interest once as I pointed out the Mt. Jumbo saddle where she has hiked and asked if she could imagine water at the peak running a couple hundred feet over the saddle leaving the peak exposed as a temporary island as it spewed out the narrows of Hellgate Canyon. She seemed to have gotten that one and said 200 feet over the top of the saddle? I think, for once, I got her to comprehend... When we went to the Bison reserve and were up at the top where the sign of the highest point is. She sort of got it then as I pointed out all the hills that would have been islands and she could look across the valley at the mountains and see about where the water would have been back...in the day...and then looked north. I also think about if any humans were around and what they would have viewed and then do NOT wonder why there are oral flood histories around the world from various events of similar magnitude. Something like these floods would definitely have a permanent impact upon the psyche of a species like ours providing the context for just how small we are in the scheme of things...
I live in gold bar, I'm so interested in knowing what rocks I have collected are. All the rock identifying apps and the internet give you many options it could be. Frustrating. Can you push me in somewhere to find the right info?
