The West Yellowstone plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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−25° on Nov. 12, 1911, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1904. Next is −25° in 1955.
West Yellowstone’s center stands about 6,670 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,570 ft to 6,930 ft, a difference of 360 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Targhee Peak, about 10,220 ft, 14 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Glacial deposit (unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 7×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Rhyolite. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Age: Archean to Paleoproterozoic. About 2 mi of the line.
Volcanic. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, 1.8 to 5.3 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale, dolostone. Age: Middle Cambrian to Late Ordovician, 454 to 521 million years old. About 0.8 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 4 smaller units along the line are not listed.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in West Yellowstone reaches the Gulf of America by way of Hebgen Lake, the Madison, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,600 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea, Lake Fort Peck and Lake Sharpe.
1,170 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of West Yellowstone; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
West Yellowstone has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. A normal year brings about 177 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 29 inches of water.
On November 14 West Yellowstone normally reaches 35° and falls to 19°. The record high is 56°, in 1953; the record low −9°, in 1909. The most rain on this date, 1.08 in, fell in 1960.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1904 at Hebgen Dam, 18 miles northwest, 180 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
