The Yellowstone River

As the only undammed river in the lower 48 states, the Yellowstone River flows 692 miles through Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. Earlier this year, Yellowstone National Park officials announced all park entrances were closed to visitors, citing “record flooding events” on the Yellowstone River. The historic Carbella Bridge and many structures along the river were destroyed. The park later reopened to visitors. The Yellowstone River flows from its source southeast of Yellowstone into the Missouri River and then, eventually, into the Atlantic Ocean. The Yellowstone River begins on the slopes of Yount Peak in the Absaroka Range of Wyoming. It then flows through Yellowstone National Park, streaming in and out of Yellowstone Lake.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the U.S., created by Congress in 1872. It is celebrating its 150th Birthday this year. It is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially the Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular. The three most dramatic waterfalls along the Yellowstone River occur in Yellowstone National Park. Once the river leaves Yellowstone Lake, it plunges 109 feet at the Upper Falls and then another 308 feet at the spectacular Lower Falls down into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Upon leaving the canyon, the river cascades down another 132 feet at Tower Falls. The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its tributaries, it drains an area with

headwaters across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, and stretching east from the Rocky Mountains. At the headwaters, elevations exceed 12,800 feet above sea level and descends to 1,850 feet at the confluence with the Missouri River in far western North Dakota. The watershed spans 34,167 square miles. The area contains many lakes, including Yellowstone Lake. There are no storage dams located on the mainstem of the Yellowstone River. However, the watershed contains major reservoirs built on tributary rivers: Bull Lake, Boysen, Buffalo Bill, Big Horn, Tongue River, and Lake De Smet reservoirs. The river rises in northwestern Wyoming in the Absaroka Range, on the Continental Divide in southwestern Park County. The river starts where the North Fork and the South Fork of the Yellowstone River converge. The North Fork, the larger of the two forks, flows from Younts Peak. The South Fork flows from the southern slopes of Thorofare Mountain.

East of Billings, it is joined by the Bighorn River. Farther downriver, it is joined by the Tongue near Miles City, and then by the Powder in eastern Montana. It flows into the Missouri River near Buford, North Dakota just upstream from Lake Sakakawea.

History

Although Native Americans had already been using the Yellowstone River, which they knew as the Elk River, for a long time, people of European descent first explored it in 1806. That year, the Lewis and Clark Expedition made its way back from the Pacific Northwest, and Lieutenant William Clark led a group down the Yellowstone River. The Yellowstone River had long been an important artery of transportation for Native Americans. The region around the Big Horn, Powder and Tongue rivers is the traditional summer hunting grounds for numerous Native American tribes: Lakota Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne and Cree. Gold was discovered near Virginia City, Montana in the 1860s, and two of the primary routes for accessing the goldfields were the Bozeman Trail and the Bridger Trail both of which followed the Yellowstone for a short length. In the 19th century, European-American settlers depended on the river for transportation, and generally entered the region by riverboat.

Byways 14 Fishing

The Yellowstone River is considered to be one of the greatest trout streams in the world and is officially classed as a blue ribbon stream in Montana from the park to the confluence with the Boulder River east of Livingston and from the mouth of Rosebud creek near Rosebud, Montana to the North Dakota border. The lack of dams along the river provides for excellent trout habitat from high inside Yellowstone Park, downstream through Gardiner, the Paradise Valley, Livingston, and to Big Timber, a stretch of nearly 200 miles. The Yellowstone varies in width from 74 feet to 300 feet, so fishing is normally done by boat. The most productive stretch of water is through Paradise Valley in Montana, especially near Livingston which holds brown, rainbow and native Yellowstone cutthroat trout as well as mountain whitefish. From Billings downstream to the North Dakota border, anglers seek burbot, channel catfish, paddlefish, sauger, smallmouth bass, and walleye.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm