Keppler Cascade, one of the Gems of Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Publication

Keppler Cascade, one of the Gems of Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Description

On the way from the Upper Geyser Basin to Yellowstone Lake, by making a short side excursion into the forest, you find these beautiful falls in Firehole River. The waters which you see now tumbling over the rocks and tearing themselves into lace over the debris piled in their path, fell in rain drops on the heights of the great Continental Divide and are now tearing along in a desperate hurry to join another stream farther down at the north (behind you) and offer its contributions to the Missouri River. These very waters may some day sweep through under the great steel bridges of the Mississippi at St. Louis and wash the low levees at New Orleans. The rocks that are being worn and polished by the energy of the racing waters in their 150 foot descent are mostly of volcanic formation; indeed, practically all this plateau region (you are only two or three miles from the Upper Geyser Basin) was shaped long ago by the upheaval of molten lava from a yawning crater of some earlier geologic age. It is only since 1870 that anybody other than an occasional Indian has known these falls at all; an exploring party that came through here in 1881 to plan a wagon-road named the cascades for a plucky twelve-year old boy who was a member of the party. There is good trout fishing here among the pools. From Notes of Travel, No.13, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.