The coordinates bring you to a NPS educational panel
describing some of the glacial features in the valley. There
is parking in the small dirt lot.
Glacial erratics are rocks that have been
transported by ice, glacier or iceberg, a significant distance and
are usually a different rock type than the rock upon which it is
deposited. Size is not a factor.
Approximately 13,000 years ago a glacier flow down from Granite
Peak north in the Beartooth Plateau and stretched 90 miles to near
Livingston in Yellowstone Valley. When this glacier finally melted,
it dropped the boulders it was carrying with it. Scattered
throughout the valley are a number of erratics of various sizes
that the glacier dropped. Most of these boulders are granite from
further up Lamar Canyon north of Slough Creek. Most of the bedrock
in the immediate area is either volcanic, gneiss, or glacial
sediments.
When the glacier began to melt, some large
blocks of ice were left behind. These isolated blocks were
buried by sediment melting off the glacier. As these buried
blocks of ice slowly melted, the sediment that was on top of
them collapsed into a depression. These landforms are called
kettle lakes or kettle holes. Some of
these depressions are only periodically filled with water
depending upon the rainfall.
Logging requirements:
Send me a note with :
- The text "GC14YV3 Kettle Lakes of Lamar Valley" on the first
line
- The number of people in your group.
- how many kettle lakes are adjacent to the parking area and how
many erratic(s) are in each of the lake(s).
- Include features that you see that define them as kettle lakes
and erratics.
The above information was compiled from the
following sources:
- NPS informational Pannel
-
http://www.fettes.com/cairngorms/kettle%20hole.htm
- Fritz, William J., Roadside Geology of the
Yellowstone Country, Mountain Press Publishing Company, May
1989.
Placement approved by the
Yellowstone National Park