Parting of the Waters



Parting of the Waters is an unusual hydrologic site at Two Ocean Pass on the Great Divide, within the Teton Wilderness area of Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest. Two Ocean Pass separates the headwaters of Pacific Creek, which flows west to the Pacific Ocean, and Atlantic Creek, which flows east to the Atlantic Ocean. At Parting of the Waters, at 44.04285°N, -110.1754°W, North Two Ocean Creek flows down from its drainage on the side of Two Ocean Plateau, and divides its waters roughly equally between its two distributaries, Pacific Creek and Atlantic Creek. From this split, Two Ocean Creek waters flow either 3488 mi to the Gulf of Mexico via Atlantic Creek and the Yellowstone, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, or 1353 mi to the Pacific via Pacific Creek and the Snake and Columbia Rivers. In the marshy area of Two Ocean Pass adjacent to Parting of the Waters, water actually covers the Continental Divide such that a fish could swim from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean drainages. In fact, it is thought that this was the pass that provided the route for Yellowstone cutthroat trout to migrate from the Snake River (Pacific) to Yellowstone River (Atlantic) drainages.

This site received designation as a National Natural Landmark in 1965, bearing the official name of Two Ocean Pass National Natural Landmark. However, Parting of the Waters, by which this site is more commonly known, is actually about 0.4 mi northwest of the low point of Two Ocean Pass, where North Two Ocean Creek emerges from its drainage basin on the side of Two Ocean Plateau.

Inasmuch as North Two Ocean Creek splits into streams that flow separately to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the entire drainage of North Two Ocean Creek lies within an area that makes up the "Continental Divide" at this place.