Answer to satellite photo challenge.
Aug. 2nd, 2007 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saxikathBehind the cut, the answer to my Google satellite photo challenge.
The location shown is, as several of you knew or figured out, the alluvial fan left behind in Horsehoe Park in Rocky Mountain National Park by the Lawn Lake flood of July 15, 1982. The dam that formed Lawn Lake, poorly maintained for many years, gave way, sending a huge rush of water down Roaring River. The alluvial fan is at the point where Roaring River comes out of its canyon; the flood dropped most of its large boulders there, before joining Fall River and continuing on to Cascade Lake, another man-made lake. The Cascade Lake dam eventually failed too, sending the water into the town of Estes Park, burying it in mud and damaging many local homes & businesses. The dam on Lake Estes, on the Big Thompson River, held, stopping the flood there. (The Big Thompson also had a dramatic flood in my lifetime, but that's a different story.)
Several campers were killed, one along Roaring River and a couple in the Aspenglen campground in Horseshoe Park, which was destroyed. (Rangers had been able to warn the campers and evacuate them, but apparently a couple of people were trapped when the flood path changed suddenly.)
My family were traveling in New England when this happened, but I remember going to the alluvial fan site later that summer. And I've visited it often in the 25 years(!) since then. It's been a fascinating study in the processes of succession in nature. Initially, the area around the boulders was covered in fine sand, like beach sand, and most of the plants were killed. Over time, first small plants and later young trees have reestablished themselves in the area. I also have a very vivid memory of watching a coyote stalk a young mountain sheep over the giant boulders.
More on the flood here.
Ground-level photos of the alluvial fan here and here.
And yes,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meranthi, I did expect you to get it. :)
The location shown is, as several of you knew or figured out, the alluvial fan left behind in Horsehoe Park in Rocky Mountain National Park by the Lawn Lake flood of July 15, 1982. The dam that formed Lawn Lake, poorly maintained for many years, gave way, sending a huge rush of water down Roaring River. The alluvial fan is at the point where Roaring River comes out of its canyon; the flood dropped most of its large boulders there, before joining Fall River and continuing on to Cascade Lake, another man-made lake. The Cascade Lake dam eventually failed too, sending the water into the town of Estes Park, burying it in mud and damaging many local homes & businesses. The dam on Lake Estes, on the Big Thompson River, held, stopping the flood there. (The Big Thompson also had a dramatic flood in my lifetime, but that's a different story.)
Several campers were killed, one along Roaring River and a couple in the Aspenglen campground in Horseshoe Park, which was destroyed. (Rangers had been able to warn the campers and evacuate them, but apparently a couple of people were trapped when the flood path changed suddenly.)
My family were traveling in New England when this happened, but I remember going to the alluvial fan site later that summer. And I've visited it often in the 25 years(!) since then. It's been a fascinating study in the processes of succession in nature. Initially, the area around the boulders was covered in fine sand, like beach sand, and most of the plants were killed. Over time, first small plants and later young trees have reestablished themselves in the area. I also have a very vivid memory of watching a coyote stalk a young mountain sheep over the giant boulders.
More on the flood here.
Ground-level photos of the alluvial fan here and here.
And yes,
meranthi, I did expect you to get it. :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-03 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-03 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-03 12:35 pm (UTC)The people in Aspenglen Campground went back for their stuff before the area had been cleared, which is why they died. And it was a VERY near thing that the Lake Estes dam held, or we would have had a repeat of the Big Thompson flood.
I know the man who called in the flood. He was collecting trash in Endo Valley at 6 in the morning when the top of the moraine disappered under water. His radio had not been working the day before, but it did that morning. They got everyone out of town, which is good, since the water deposited 4 feet of mud in downtown Estes. We have pictures from there.