Two Ocean Pass
| Two Ocean Pass | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass height | 2478 m | ||
| region | Wyoming , United States | ||
| Mountains | Rocky mountains | ||
| particularities | River bifurcation | ||
| map | |||
|
|||
| Coordinates | 44 ° 2 '34 " N , 110 ° 10' 32" W | ||
The Two Ocean Pass is a mountain pass on the continental divide of North America in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in the US state of Wyoming . The height of the pass is 2478 meters. The water of the pass crossing flows southwest of the watershed over the Pacific Creek into the Pacific and northeast over the Atlantic Creek into the Atlantic .
Despite its height and the surrounding mountains, which are over 3000 meters high, the pass crossing is a wide plain , characterized by grassland and moors , two to three kilometers long and over one kilometer wide. The pass, located a little south of Yellowstone National Park , is only accessible via hiking trails. The next major road is about 25 kilometers south of the pass.
The only river bifurcation in the continental divide in North America is located at Two Ocean Pass . North Two Ocean Creek , descending from the slopes north of the pass, splits at the pass into Pacific Creek , which flows over the Snake River and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific, and Atlantic Creek , which flows into the Gulf of Mexico over Yellowstone River and Missouri . This peculiarity is called Parting of the Waters .
Some sources also state that South Two Ocean Creek , which flows down to the pass from the south, also divides.
“Each fork of Atlantic Creek, just after entering the meadow, divides as if to flow around an island; but the stream toward the meadow, instead of returning toward the portion of which it had parted, continued its westernly course across the meadow. Just before reaching the western border the two streams unite, and then pour their combined waters into Pacific Creek. "
“Every source stream of Atlantic Creek divides as soon as it comes to the meadow, as if it were flowing around an island; but the stream to the meadow maintains its westerly direction across the meadow instead of returning to the other part from which it had separated. Shortly before the western edge, the two brooks join, and then their common water flows into Pacific Creek. "
In the stream dammed by beavers , however, no clear course can be seen.
After precipitation or snowmelt, a small lake is said to form on the marshy plain at Two Ocean Pass , which drains on both sides, i.e. a pseudobifurcation .
Thanks to the bifurcation, fish can move from one river system to the other across the continental divide. Fish that cross over here include the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri) and Ptychocheilus oregonensis (Columbia River Dace) . The upper reaches of the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Lake were only populated by fish via the Two Ocean Pass and thus downstream, as the Lower Falls , waterfalls on the Yellowstone River, cannot be overcome by fish and the region was originally fish-free. Cottus bairdii , who is also native to the upper reaches of Pacific Creek, did not switch to Atlantic Creek.
The phenomenon of fish migrating across the watershed was spread by Jim Bridger , who explored the area in the mid-19th century. Often doubted, the bifurcation was then confirmed by William A. Jones during his expedition in the summer of 1873.
In 1965 the Two Ocean Pass and Parting of the Waters were designated as National Natural Landmarks .
literature
- Barton Warren Evermann : Two-Ocean Pass . In: Popular Science Monthly . tape 47 , 1895, p. 175-186 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Two Ocean Pass to the National Natural Landmarks Program
- Two Ocean Pass in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
- Photo of Parting of the Waters (Atlantic Creek left, Pacific Creek right)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Two Ocean Pass in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
- ↑ a b c Hiram Martin Chittenden, Isabelle Florence Story: Yellowstone National Park . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1933, pp. 79 f . ( Copy from Google Books ).
- ↑ Douglas Lorain: Backpacking Wyoming: From Towering Granite Peaks to Steaming Geyser Basins . Wilderness Press, Berkeley 2010, ISBN 978-0-89997-505-4 , pp. 100 ( copy from Google Books ).
- ^ There are some interesting "holes" in the Continental Divide. (No longer available online.) In: Personal Web Site of Robert Lindsay. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016 ; accessed on May 5, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c Barton Warren Evermann: Two-Ocean Pass . In: Popular Science Monthly . tape 47 , 1895, p. 175-186 ( digitized version ).
- ^ A b John D. Varley, Paul Schullery: Yellowstone Fishes . Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg 1998, ISBN 0-8117-2777-7 ( copy from Google Books ).
- ↑ Kenneth H. Baldwin: IV - Two-Ocean Water and Togwotee Pass: The Jones Expedition of 1873. In: Enchanted Enclosure: The Army Engineers and Yellowstone National Park. 1976, accessed on May 8, 2014 (English): "First, he verified the existence of Two-Ocean Water, a place where, as Bridger had insisted for years, water flowed simultaneously to both the Atlantic and the Pacific."