Parting of the Waters

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.