Last updated: May 30, 2023
Place
Glacial Lake Missoula Strandlines
NPS
Quick Facts
Location:
The Kim Williams Nature Trail is part of the Missoula City Parks and is accessed off of Van Buren Street and fifth Street in Missoula.
Amenities
1 listed
Scenic View/Photo Spot
Imagine you are standing on the edge of glacial Lake Missoula 15,000 years ago. You can hear lapping waves cutting benches known as “strandlines” into the shoreline. Today, you can see these huge strandlines on hills surrounding Missoula, Montana, marking changes in lake level over time. On Mount Sentinel, marked with an “M”, and Mount Jumbo, marked with an “L”, the strandlines are seen as horizontal lines in the vegetation or highlighted by snow in the winter. Public hiking trails switchback through the strandlines on Mount Sentinel and Mount Jumbo.
Visit:GLACIAL LAKE MISSOULA - Home for the most comprehensive overview of on the Glacial Lake Missoula Ice Age Floods story.
Ancient shorelines or strandlines of Glacial Lake Missoula are visible as perfectly parallel horizontal benches on hillside slopes around Missoula. They are most visible with light snow cover, or in low evening light on the mountains marked with an"M" and an "L" on either side of Hellgate Canyon looking east from the downtown.
These shoreline benches cut by wave action in the lake recorded various lake levels as the ice dam blocking the Clark Fork River far upstream on the Idaho border repeatedly failed and refilled 40 times or more. Some speculate that as the ice-age waned each successive ice dam that reformed was smaller and failed under less pressure from a lower lake level than the one before, leaving behind its bench as a record of the successively lower ancient lake shorelines. Most agree they record winter still-stands in rising lake levels over time.
Visit:GLACIAL LAKE MISSOULA - Home for the most comprehensive overview of on the Glacial Lake Missoula Ice Age Floods story.
Ancient shorelines or strandlines of Glacial Lake Missoula are visible as perfectly parallel horizontal benches on hillside slopes around Missoula. They are most visible with light snow cover, or in low evening light on the mountains marked with an"M" and an "L" on either side of Hellgate Canyon looking east from the downtown.
These shoreline benches cut by wave action in the lake recorded various lake levels as the ice dam blocking the Clark Fork River far upstream on the Idaho border repeatedly failed and refilled 40 times or more. Some speculate that as the ice-age waned each successive ice dam that reformed was smaller and failed under less pressure from a lower lake level than the one before, leaving behind its bench as a record of the successively lower ancient lake shorelines. Most agree they record winter still-stands in rising lake levels over time.