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All the United States Wyoming Moran Parting of the Waters

Parting of the Waters

Creek water that starts here has a 50/50 chance of ending up in the Atlantic or the Pacific.

Moran, Wyoming

Added By
David Minkin
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For such a unique spot, a modest sign   Ericshawwhite
For such a unique spot, a modest sign   Ericshawwhite
The topography of the divide   US Geological Survey
It’s an otherwise unassuming spot in the mountains   National Park Service
But this guy found it   Ericshawwhite
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About

High in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, there is a creek that splits in two. If you were a trout, you could choose between swimming down one stream to the Pacific Ocean, or down the other to the Atlantic. The place is known as Two Ocean Pass, and the exact spot is called Parting of the Waters.

About 35 miles southeast of Yellowstone National Park, Two Ocean Pass sits along a remote meadow on the Continental Divide Trail. Here, at the headwaters of North Two Ocean Creek, the terrain flattens out and the creek splits into two tributaries, the Pacific Creek and the Atlantic Creek, each heading off in opposite directions to join up with progressively bigger and bigger rivers.  

Accessible only by hike or horse, Parting of the Waters marks the start of these divergent journeys, one a 1,353 mile trip to the Pacific via the Snake and Columbia Rivers; and the other, 3,488 miles by way of the Yellowstone, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and finally the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic.

According to the National Park Service, the convergence of the two creeks creates an east-west migration route for cutthroat trout, who use it to get from the Snake River to the Missouri. Lewis and Clark tried to find this Northwest Passage. They should have just followed the fish.

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Rivers Oceans Geology Geological Oddities Water

Know Before You Go

Two Ocean Pass/Parting of the Waters are in Bridger-Teton National Forest in northwest Wyoming.

There are excursions (horseback and hiking) from Moran, Wyoming, about 20 miles away. Moran is at the junction of Hwy-89 and US Hwy-26, and is one of the main entrance points for the park.

Community Contributors

Added By

The Minx

Edited By

Blindcolour

  • Blindcolour

Published

July 25, 2016

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Ocean_Pass
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parting_of_the_Waters
Parting of the Waters
Continental Divide Trail
Moran, Wyoming
United States
44.042897, -110.175415
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