THE DIVIDING CREEK

Bet you did not know this!

 

 

This creek divides the US by connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

 

 

The Panama Canal is not the only water line connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

There's a place in Wyoming—deep in the Teton Wilderness Area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest—where a small creek splits in two. Like the Panama Canal, this small creek, which can almost be stepped across, connects the two oceans by dividing North America in two parts. Yes. You read that right: North America is divided in two parts by a single water line that—no matter how hard you try not to—you will have to cross to go from North to South and vice versa.

The creek divides into two similar flows at a place called the Parting of the Waters, pictured above. To the East, the creek flows "3,488 miles (5,613 km) to the Atlantic Ocean via Atlantic Creek and the Yellowstone, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers." To the West, it flows "1,353 miles (2,177 km) to the Pacific Ocean via Pacific Creek and the Snake and Columbia Rivers."

Of course, unlike the Panama Channel, you can't navigate these waters—At Parting of the Waters, water actually covers the Continental Divide such that a fish could safely swim from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean drainages. In fact, it is thought that this was the pass that provided the immigration route for Cutthroat Trout to migrate from the Snake River (Pacific) to the Yellowstone River (Atlantic) drainages.

I don't know about you, but I find this to be pretty darn awesome.