River Gorging

The Madison River is an interesting river. It does something that no other river in the US does. It gorges. Gorging is awesome and beautiful and a little scary. When I was walking around down there it felt absolutely prehistoric, glacier-like. The ice shifts and moves and grinds and squeals. It's really amazing.

Gorging is when the river doesn't freeze. Instead it fills up with ice. The ice backs up into Ennis lake which in turn causes the river to overflow it's banks. And I mean OVERFLOW. The water goes everywhere! The ice builds up along the banks of the river and freezes where ever the river has left it's banks as well. I hear that the river is prime for fishing at this time of year. You wouldn't catch me in a boat with all that ice around! No way.

But I'll go down and take pictures =)

This is shot northeast of Ennis. Right at the edge of town and the bank of the river. Look at all that ice!!

This is how thick it is! I wonder if there are fish in that hole... or maybe ducks?

This is a shot of the bridge that goes out the east side of Ennis, towards Yellowstone National Park. I guess sometimes the ice comes up over the bridge!

A close up of the ice. I love close ups...

Bird foot prints. The look so perfect in the fresh sprinkle of snow.