Firehole River, Yellowstone National Park
This unused Yellowstone Forever postcard shows an aerial view of the Firehole River in the Upper Geyser Basin, photograph by Tom Murphy. The number 46 appears on the reverse center line. The blurb at the upper left on the reverse: “Yellowstone National Park Upper Geyser Basin, one of the three significant geyser basins near the Firehole River, contains the largest concentration of active geysers in the world. In an area covering less than two miles, more than 200 geysers are found, including the famous icon of Yellowstone, Old Faithful.”
Firehole Falls, Yellowstone National Park, 2024
The Firehole River has three main waterfalls; Kepler Cascades, Firehole Falls, and the Cascades of the Firehole located in Firehole Canyon.
Steam rising from the river looked like smoke and prompted early trappers to give the river its name of Firehole. Surrounded by geothermal features that empty extremely hot water into the river can cause the river temperature to rise up to 86 degrees F or 30 degrees C. The usual temperature is between 40 to 50 F or 10 C.
The geothermal features dissolve chemicals and minerals, such as boron and arsenic, that have been found in the river water above standard safety limits. However, fish do live and spawn in the river. Brook trout were introduced to upper Firehole in 1889, Brown trout came next in 1890 and Rainbow trout in 1923. The fish stocking programs were discontinued in the 1950s and today all the Firehole trout are completely wild populations. The Firehole River is now designated as Fly Fishing Only. Brown and Rainbow trout are catch and release but up to 5 Brook trout are allowed. Fishing has been popular in the park for more than 100 years. Of the approximately 4 million visitors to the park each year, 50,000 are fishermen.
For additional information, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehole_River
https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/fishing.htm
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