Yellowstone's Waters
Yellowstone National Park has rivers running through it, and wet lands cover more than % of the park’s backcountry. And the landscape is graced with some waterfalls. Much of Yellowstone is in fact uniquely wet. While some surrounding areas average or inches of rain a year, parts of Yellowstone get up to , plus about feet of snow. Rivers and streams continually run through and shape Yelllowstone’s landscape. The extent of the water in the park continues to amaze adventure seekers and even the experts. “So many rivers begin here, and flow every which direction of the plateau, so it is, you know, there is a lot of water up here.”
Lee Whittlesee and Mike Stevens find waterfalls, and when they began searching, no one dreamt how many they’d find. In there were just falls on the map. “We thought we might find as many as waterfalls that nobody had found. Instead we found close to .”
A fall must be feet tall to qualify, but most are much larger. Before recent finds, the well-known Lower Falls held the title of Yellowstone’s tallest: feet. At least waterfalls are now known to be higher. And the park is defined by water: valleys shaped by glaciers, rivers and falls carve away rock, and water creates the geysers. These are only a few of the marvels of nature for all to see in the world’s first national park.