Pristine Waters for Greater Yellowstone

While Greater Yellowstone is justifiably famous for its stunning diversity of wildlife and unparalleled collection of geothermal features, it is also home to more heartstoppingly beautiful rivers, spectacular mountain lakes, and thriving wild trout fisheries than just about any place on earth. Here, three of the West’s great rivers – the Snake, Missouri, and Green – are born. In all, 12 major rivers radiate off the Yellowstone Plateau, sending an average of four trillion gallons a year cascading towards the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. That’s enough water to fill lake Superior more than 12 times!

Yellowstone National Park alone features 150 lakes and 2,650 miles of streams, including such legendary flyfishing haunts as the Yellowstone, Madison, Gallatin, Lamar, and Firehole rivers. Perhaps no lake in the lower 48 states is more famous among trout anglers than Yellowstone Lake. Perched at 7,000 feet in the collapsed caldera of the Yellowstone volcano, it is home to the world’s largest population of inland native cutthroat trout. Biologists have found at least 42 species of birds and mammals that rely on Yellowstone Lake’s cutthroat trout as a major source of protein, including up to 20 percent of the park’s grizzly bears.