More on Yellowstone Falls

This entry builds on my 3/13/18 and 4/30/18 Blog Entries.

There are two Yellowstone Falls. As the Yellowstone River flows north out of Yellowstone Lake in a section of the park that is located within Wyoming, it flows over two falls before entering Yellowstone Grand Canyon. The first, lesser known and lesser seen falls is the 110 foot tall Upper Yellowstone Falls. The second, higher, better known and more widely seen is the Lower Yellowstone Falls that stands at over 300 feet and is pictured below.

The lower falls is more dramatic not only because of its greater height, but because it marks the river’s very dramatic entry into Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Its flow is the largest by volume of any other falls in the Rocky Mountains.

The Canyon was cut out of the yellowish sulfur content rock (note the yellow color) over millions of years by the river. In the above wider view of the Lower Falls and Canyon, the lower observation point can be seen at the bottom of the photo. It is a very steep 1/3 mile hike down (and back up) from the North Rim Road (high on the right side).

The last photo (below) shows the effects of ongoing erosion on the canyon rock just downstream from the other photos. The river is 1,000 ft. deep within this narrow gorge. A piece of the river can be seen in the lower right. Over future time the river will undercut the current canyon edges slowly widening it.

The photos were taken from the Grand View Observation Point down stream from the lower falls with a Canon AE-1 in 2007. For information on both falls, see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Falls>.