The Waterfalls of Yellowstone

Lower Falls in the Yellowstone River Gorge aka Yellowstone Grand Canyon 

 www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/roadsidewaterfalls.htm
  www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/backcountrywaterfalls.htm

 

 

One source tell me that Yellowstone  contains at least 45 named waterfalls and cascades, and hundreds more unnamed, possibly even undiscovered waterfalls that are over 15 feet  high.  Another source states that there are hundreds of waterfalls.  I guess it is just a matter of perspective.  Depending upon ones outlook, both these statements, I guess, could be true.

The highest plunge type waterfall in the park is the lower Falls which plunges 308 feet.  Several are near the roadside with pull off parking areas.  Many can only be reached from hiking trails.  And still others are in the back country, only to be reached by hiking.

The beauty of the cascading water is beyond words.  We sought out five of these natural wonders. The Yellowstone River (which includes the Gorge aka Yellowstone's Grand Canyon). The Firehole River.  Tower Roosevelt.  Gibbon River.  There are not enough words (and pictures even fail) to describe these beautiful vistas that God has given us.

The Yellowstone Grand Canyon is one the east side of the Grand Loop, north of Yellowstone Lake.  Upper and Lower Falls can be viewed here.  (We counted these as "two" falls even though they are on the same river.  They are about one mile apart)
 

With my faithful map in hand, we started out on an adventure to view as many waterfalls as possible.  First we headed to the south rim of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon (aka Yellowstone River Gorge).  There are two sets of falls here...the upper and lower.  We viewed the upper first.  I wanted to take the trail down to the bottom of the gorge, but Steve's being practical turned out to be a blessing.  He did not feel up to it.  We did view it from various overviews.  We drove to the lower falls although there was a trail from the upper to the lower.  If we go down, we have to come up again.  We live only about 100 feet above sea level.  Most of Yellowstone has a 7,000 to 8,000 elevation.  Nothing can make one feel older faster than trying to hike these ups and downs when one is not physically fit for the altitude that is that much higher than where one lives.

 

After we viewed both upper and lower falls from the South Rim, we motored to the north rim.  There the overview is super, but does not go all the way into the canyon.  The short trail was easy to follow, although, as I recall there was a bit of huffing and puffing on the return trip on my part.

Our next adventure was to see the falls at Tower Roosevelt.  We had come close to it on the first day when we passed through from Bear Tooth Pass.  The falls are just a tad south of the road on which we veered north (near Lamar Valley).  We did not, however, realize it was there.  This proved to be more adventure than we planned, as there was road construction which caused us to sit and wait for at least a half hour.  Steve, as we know, is not the most patient person, but we survived and finally pulled into the parking lot for this falls.  We ran into Troop 203 with their chartreuse shirts once again and talked to one of the leaders.  These kids were having the time of their life (well, so were we!).  Between the Yellowstone River Falls and the Tower Falls, we found the second herd of buffalo (in another posting).

 

On our way to Tower Falls we passed through beautiful flowering meadows and great evergreen forests.  On our return trip, we viewed the mountainside with its tall sad skeletons of burned trees from a fire long ago.  Some smaller evergreens were beginning to grow, but the gray remnants truly did look sad.

 

The Tower Falls were a short hike down a trail with not much of an incline/decline, but part of the trail was closed for some reason.  So that we would not have to sit in traffic again, after we viewed these falls, we backtracked and did not have to wait for the construction vehicles (pure luck!)

Tower Falls flows into the Yellowstone River.  The pamphlet states this is a good place to see/view predators...wolves, bears...but we did not see any.  These fall tumble 132 feet.

On the west side of the Grand Loop the Gibbon River meanders.  And then there is the falls.  We passed it the first day when we were heading toward our overnight place to stay (Old Faithful Lodge Cabins).  We saw a pull off with lots of people wandering around, but we had no idea why.  Later we checked the map and VOILA.  The road sloped downward rather steeply with a stone wall that followed and dropped with the road.  The pull off was at the head of the falls.  And only a few yards away placed us at the top of the falls.  Again we thought about walking down to view them better.  The trail followed the road.  It looked like easy walking.  But, it was a long hike back up.  So, we viewed the falls from the top. 

 

The falls plunge 84 feet.  It is located on the west side of the Grand Loop between the North Entrance and the West Entrance.  As far as I can tell, Gibbon Falls is the closest to the well traveled road.

 

There was an interpretive sign that showed how it was built.  I would not want to have been one working on it.  It looked terribly dangerous.

 

 

 

The last falls that found was on the Little Firehole River near the Upper Geyser Basin.  It was called Mystic Falls.  Mystic Falls is small in comparison with a seventy foot drop.  It is, however, unique in that there is thermal activity from top to bottom (or bottom to top).

 

Very close to the road.