Nugget 14: Crazy about Waterfalls

Some wonderful falls are easily reached on short hikes. For example, Crystal Falls on Cascade Creek (left) drops into the Yellowstone River between the famous Upper and Lower Falls near Canyon Junction.

Mystic Falls (right) is about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) from the parking lot for Biscuit Basin near Old Faithful. This 70-foot (21 m) waterfall is on a pleasant hike along the Little Firehole River, where abundant wildflowers are a bonus.

Behind Roosevelt Lodge at Tower-Roosevelt Junction is the somewhat steep but little used 0.3 mile (0.5 km) trail to 40-foot (12 m) Lost Creek Falls. This waterfall was described in Hiram Chittenden's 1903 guidebook as providing "a scene of quiet beauty rarely found in so wild and rough a country." In late summer, look for raspberries along the trail.

Lost Creek Falls (left)

Obviously, you'll find the most waterfalls in places where high precipitation combines with sufficient topographic relief. An award-winning book, called Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery, by Paul Rubinstein, Lee H. Whittlesey, and Mike Stevens (2000), points the way to finding over 250 waterfalls in Yellowstone, with 104 of them in the very wet southwestern Cascade Corner.

CREDITS: The photo of Crystal Falls is by Bruno Giletti; the photos of Mystic and Lost Creek falls are by Janet Chapple.

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 Tower Fall is one of the park's most famous—but why is it called Fall and not Falls, and how did it get its name? See page 218 of the second edition.

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