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All the United States Wyoming Yellowstone National Park Isa Lake
AO Edited

Isa Lake

The only natural lake in the world that drains into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

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bgbaum
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  WhiskeyBristles / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
Isa Lake on May 28, 2006, after a snowstorm.   Kevin Dort / Atlas Obscura User
  notoriousFIG / Atlas Obscura User
  notoriousFIG / Atlas Obscura User
Yellow pond lilies in Isa Lake.   Morten Kirk / Atlas Obscura User
Isa Lake (background) straddles the Continental Divide.   bgbaum / Atlas Obscura User
Watch carefully, only a small roadside sign identifies the lake.   bgbaum / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
Narrow Isa Lake is spanned by Yellowstone’s Grand Loop Road.   bgbaum / Atlas Obscura User
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About

When the mountain snows melt, and the springtime runoff swells the banks of this narrow lake situated at the summit of Craig Pass in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, something unusual happens.

Sitting astride the Continental Divide at 8,262 feet (2,518 meters) is Isa Lake, a pristine sliver of water spanned by the lower end of the park’s Grand Loop Road. Not only is Isa acknowledged to be one of the only two natural lakes in the world that drains to two oceans, but it is also unique in that it does so backwards. (Wollaston Lake in Alberta drains into the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.)

According to the 1905 book, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, the lake was “named for Miss Isabel Jelke, of Cincinnati,” though any reason as to why has been lost to history. Throughout the year, the western end of the lake flows into the Firehole River, which meanders east to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. In spring, the eastern end runs into nearby Shoshone Lake, which then drains, via a very convoluted path, into the Lewis, Snake, and Columbia rivers on its way west to the Pacific.

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Lakes Rivers Oceans National Parks Water

Know Before You Go

Isa Lake sits about halfway between the Old Faithful and West Thumb geyser basins on the Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Loop Road. There is a small roadside pullout with informational signage.

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bgbaum

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cptnxanarchy, erjeffery, WhiskeyBristles, notoriousFIG...

  • cptnxanarchy
  • erjeffery
  • WhiskeyBristles
  • notoriousFIG
  • Morten Kirk
  • breaingram
  • Kevin Dort

Published

May 31, 2016

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  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isa_Lake
Isa Lake
US-191
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 82190
United States
44.441911, -110.718531
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