Post by Poor Richard on Aug 31, 2022 15:58:59 GMT -7
Gone with the flood: Popular backcountry lakes erased in the Beartooths
KBZK reports:
"The evidence is in U.S. Forest Service reports and video captured by stunned hikers: Two beloved backcountry lakes nestled in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness are virtually gone, after historic June floods destroyed their outlets.
"The volume of water moving through there was significant enough that it basically eroded the outlets of those lakes over the course of a few days. No more outlet, and now it’s a stream," says Jake Chaffin, watershed project manager for the Custer-Gallatin National Forest.
Chaffin says the two most notable changes are in Elk Lake and Island Lake. Island Lake is above Mystic Lake and has been reduced significantly, exposing sandy beaches and jagged, destroyed banks.
Read the full story here and watch the video.
"The evidence is in U.S. Forest Service reports and video captured by stunned hikers: Two beloved backcountry lakes nestled in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness are virtually gone, after historic June floods destroyed their outlets.
"The volume of water moving through there was significant enough that it basically eroded the outlets of those lakes over the course of a few days. No more outlet, and now it’s a stream," says Jake Chaffin, watershed project manager for the Custer-Gallatin National Forest.
Chaffin says the two most notable changes are in Elk Lake and Island Lake. Island Lake is above Mystic Lake and has been reduced significantly, exposing sandy beaches and jagged, destroyed banks.
Read the full story here and watch the video.