Grasshopper Glacier
Exploring Grasshopper Glacier
Grasshopper Glacier is an amazing and curious natural phenomenon. Located at 11,000 feet in the heart of the Beartooth Mountains, Grasshopper Glacier derives its name from the thousands of tons of ancient grasshoppers that are frozen in overlapping layers. Each year thousands of tourists swarm to the glacier to examine the grasshoppers which are preserved in the lower fringe of the glacier. more info
Since its discovery in the early 1900s by Dr. J.P. Kimball, a mining geologist and engineer with the US Geological Survey, Grasshopper Glacier has continued to awe scientists as well as tourists. The glacier holds so many millions of grasshoppers that it is impossible to break off a piece small enough that does not contain a grasshopper.
Anders Wilse, the photographer for Kimball's expedition, wrote that the embedded grasshoppers made the surface of the glacier "look like the skin of an elephant." Kimball and his crew hypothesized that in the fall, swarms of grasshoppers gathered in a nearby river valley en route to migrate over the mountain range. Snowstorms must have pushed them down and buried them in snow. Ice and snow continued to build over the grasshoppers in the glacial terrain, only to be exposed after years of glacial melting.
In 1914 scientists conducted a study on the grasshopper remains and discovered that the embedded grasshoppers had been extinct for 200 years. The species was identified as "Menaloplus spretus, Thomas," a type of migratory locust.
Grasshopper Glacier is about 1 mile long and 1/2 mile wide. It has receded from a length of 4 miles. Tourists used to be able to dig out preserved specimens of the grasshoppers, but recent dramatic melt cycles have exposed many of the grasshoppers to decomposition.
Grasshopper Glacier used to serve as an ice dam to an unnamed 30-acre lake. In September 2003, the glacial ice dam eroded just enough to release 650 million gallons of water into Grasshopper Creek as well as into Dinwoody Creek and the Downs Fork. Over the course of 4 days, the raging water dug a 30-foot deep trench a half-mile down the glacier. Sediment was deposited in meadows and surrounding lakes. Liz Oswald, a hydrologist with the Forest Service, estimated that the wave which raged through the canyon, responsible for transforming the surface of 8 miles of terrain, reached a height of 10 feet. This type of natural occurrence is called a "jokulhlaup" by glacial experts in Iceland. No one was hurt in the jokulhlaup.
To get to Grasshopper Glacier, turn north off US 212 which is about 2 miles east of Cooke City, Montana, and continue on the Lulu Pass-Goose Lake Road, #6493. The road is rough and recommended only for cars with high clearance and 4-wheel drive. The road is open from late July through August when the road is dry. At the end of the road you must hike 4 miles to reach the glacier.
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