Trifter

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When I was 24 I threw some gear into the back of my capped pickup truck and drove across Canada to see the last of the 50 states I’d yet to see, Alaska. On the way home I stopped and spent a few days in Yellowstone National Park. On the third day I went hiking all day and as the sun was setting went fly fishing and caught a bunch of beautiful brook trout until darkness set in. I didn’t feel like driving to a campground and the place I was fishing at was very remote so I just crawled into the back of my pickup and slept. At 3 AM I was awakened by lights and a flashlight tapping on my window. It was a lady ranger on patrol and she told me I was not allowed to camp where I was and she could show me to a campground with one last campsite available. We got to talking and eventually I asked her if I could just sleep where I was. She agreed but said she had already radioed in my license plate number so I could never visit again with the same plates. She showed me a few more sites and I left Yellowstone that day and never returned with the same plates. Yellowstone is just an unbelievable place.

Lower Yellowstone Falls

Lower Yellowstone Falls is simply a spectacular waterfall that drops 308 feet. It is located along the Yellowstone River in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone below canyon Lodge and is easily viewed from both sides of the canyon by road and by hiking all along Uncle Tom’s Trail.

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Upper Yellowstone Falls

Upper Yellowstone Falls drops 109 feet along the Yellowstone River just below Canyon Lodge at the head of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. You can view the falls from either side of the canyon.

Union Falls

Union Falls just might be my favorite waterfall in Yellowstone. It’s roughly 265 feet high and was named and formed by the union of Mountain Ash Creek and another unnamed stream in the southern end of the park. To reach the falls you must hike all day from trail-heads available at Grassy Lake, Fish Lake or Cave Falls.

Tower Fall

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Tower Falls tumbles 132 feet along Tower Creek and is located along the main road about 2 miles south of Tower Junction. There is a parking area with an overlook for the falls and you can also hike to the base along a 1 mile round trip trail.

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Lewis Falls

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Lewis Falls drops roughly 30 feet along the Lewis River below Lewis Lake along the main road about 11 miles north of the South Entrance to the park. You can see Lewis Falls right from the road and it was named for one half of the Lewis and Clark Expedition leaders.

Firehole Falls

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Firehole Falls drops some 40 feet along the Firehole River and is located 1/2 mile south of Madison Junction along the one way Firehole Canyon Drive about 15 miles in from the West Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Due to the impassibility of Firehole Falls no trout lived in the river above the falls until 1889 when brook trout where added by man. The falls still block trout migration but today the Firehole River above the falls is a first class trout river.

Hot Springs Falls – Grand Prismatic Falls

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Kepler Cascades

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Kepler Cascades drops roughly 150 total feet over several drops with the largest drop being about 50 feet along the Firehole River on the main road 2 miles south of Old Faithful and 15 miles west of  West Thumb. The cascades were named for the son of Wyoming’s Territorial governor by the park’s superintendent in 1881 when the governor visited the park with his son Kepler.

Gibbon Falls

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Gibbon Falls drops some 84 feet along the Gibbon River along the Grand Loop Road 5 miles north of Madison Junction where there is an often crowded overlook for the falls.

Undine Falls

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Undine Falls is a twin waterfall that drops 60 and 50 feet along Lava Creek on the main road 4 miles east of Mammoth and about 10 miles from the North Entrance. The upper falls were on the cover of National Geographic magazine in July of 1977.

Fairy Falls

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Fairy Falls drops some 197 feet in the western part of the park north of Old Faithful. To see Fairy Falls you have to hike roughly 5 miles from either Fountain Flat Drive or Midway Geyser Basin.

Moose Falls

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Moose Falls drops some 30 feet along Crawfish Creek just off on the main road less than 1 mile north of the South Entrance. Not the tallest waterfall in the park by any means but well worth the visit if you are coming into or leaving the park from the South Entrance.

Mystic Falls

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Mystic Falls drops some 70 feet along the Little Firehole River and is located 2 miles north of Old Faithful along the 2 mile Biscuit Basin Loop Trail. Set right near the Biscuit Basin Geyser field some of the water feeding the falls comes from hot springs just above.

Rustic Falls

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Rustic Falls drops some 47 feet along Glen Creek on the main road just a few miles south of Mammoth Springs. This waterfall can get light in the summer with no rain.

Cave Falls

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Cave Falls is only some 20 feet high but it stretches over 250 feet in width along the Falls River in southwestern Yellowstone Park. To reach the falls by road you need to go to Ashton, Idaho.

Crystal Falls

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Crystal Falls drops some 129 feet along Cascade Creek and is located between the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls. It can be viewed from the Uncle Tom’s Trail parking lot.

Silver Cord Cascade

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Silver Cord Cascade is probably Yellowstone Park’s tallest waterfall at roughly 1,200 feet along Surface Creek as it drops into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on the south side. Silver Cord Cascade can be viewed from the Glacial Boulder Trail about one mile from Glacial Boulder not far from Inspiration Point.