Lake Missoula (6/7)

This plaque is an artist’s depiction of Lake Missoula, from the same vantage point as the first picture in this set. Even with the painting, it is hard to grasp the amount of water that filled this valley. The plaque reads:

You are looking east across the Mission Valley to the high and deeply glaciated peaks of the Mission Mountains. The artist’s reconstruction shows the same scene as it surely looked 11,000 years ago when Glacial Lake Missoula flooded the valley. Also during that time glaciers that filled the valleys spilled into the lake, snapping off and forming icebergs.

Written by Rex Trulove