River
Bighorn River
742 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Yellowstone River
In numbers
Length
742km
Average flow
150m³/s
Basin
59,270km²
Drop
1,548m
from 2,370 m to 822 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
742 km of river and 18 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmWind Riverat 2,370 m
- 150 kmPilot Butte Reservoir3.0 km²
- 202 kmRiverton10,873 people
- 269 kmBoysen Reservoir74 km²
- 295 kmWind Rivertributary
- 298 kmCQA Four Mile Bridge
- 303 kmThermopolis2,725 people
- 305 kmThermopolis Swinging Bridge
- 317 kmLucerne548 people
- 369 kmWorland4,773 people
- 393 kmRairden Bridge
- 406 kmManderson88 people
- 411 kmNowood Rivertributary
- 437 kmGreybull Rivertributary
- 437 kmGreybull1,651 people
- 440 kmShell Creektributary
- 494 kmShoshone Rivertributary
- 575 kmBighorn Lake11 km²
- 650 kmLittle Bighorn Rivertributary
- 742 kmYellowstone Riverat 822 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Wyoming and Montana, United States
At the mouth it carries 145 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 17 seconds. It drops from 2,370 m to 822 m, 2.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 59,270 km², about the size of TG. 103,000 people live in it. Highest water: May; lowest: from December to February and September. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 80% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- RivertonLargest city on its banks · 10,873 people
- Central Wyoming Regional Airport (RIW)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 8 km from the cityCar hire in RivertonDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water18 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Bighorn River, month by month
Highest water: May
Lowest water: from December to February and September. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to January. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 28 m³/s in the lowest month to 540 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Bighorn River: the basin in numbers
59,154 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 103,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 1,851maverage altitude of the basin
- 345mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.8°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 2%permafrost
- 3.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 23% Forest
- 5% Cropland
- 63% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Bighorn River: what you find on the way
- 28Weirs
- 3WaterfallsBrooks Lake Creek Falls
- 1RapidsSitting Bull Rapids
- 18Boat rampsLakeside and 17 more
- 1River beachesSeven Rams Landing
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Bighorn River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
6mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Pilot Butte Reservoirkm 1283.0km²
- Boysen Reservoirkm 22974km²
- Bighorn Lakekm 49011km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (6)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Little Mountain13 km away
- Sykes Mountain8.2 km away
- Bar Hill3.9 km away
- Barrys Island11 km away
- Penney Peak12 km away
- Yellow Hill1.7 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Bighorn River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Yellowstone RiverUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Little Bighorn River, Wind River, Shoshone River, Greybull River, Nowood River, Shell Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Owl Creek
In the same basin
United States3,766 km12,700 m³/sMissouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sOhio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q859686) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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