River
Cheyenne River
475 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Missouri River
In numbers
Length
475km
Average flow
65m³/s
Basin
62,800km²
Drop
839m
from 1,324 m to 485 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
475 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAntelope Creekat 1,324 m
- 94 kmDSD Bridge over Cheyenne River
- 167 kmAngostura Reservoir16 km²
- 205 kmBuffalo Gap Cheyenne River Bridge
- 225 kmFrench Creektributary
- 260 kmRapid Creektributary
- 288 kmSouth Dakota Department of Transportation Bridge No. 52-824-300
- 324 kmBelle Fourche Rivertributary
- 475 kmMissouri Riverat 485 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming
At the mouth it carries 65 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 38 seconds. It drops from 1,324 m to 485 m, 1.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 62,800 km², about the size of LV. 230,000 people live in it. Highest water: from May to June; lowest: from November to February. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (38% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Eagle ButteLargest city on its banks · 1,318 people
- Pierre Regional Airport (PIR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 102 km from the cityCar hire at RAP airport (Rapid City)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Cheyenne River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from November to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to January. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 13 m³/s in the lowest month to 300 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
Cheyenne River: the basin in numbers
65,211 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 230,000people live in the basin
- 4/km²people per km²
- 1,164maverage altitude of the basin
- 412mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 7.5°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 0.8km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 18% Forest
- 14% Cropland
- 71% 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
Cheyenne River: what you find on the way
- 5Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Cheyenne 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Angostura Reservoirkm 20816km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Rochelle Hills12 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
Cheyenne River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Missouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sTributaries (14)
Also: Belle Fourche River, Rapid Creek, French Creek, Fall River, Beaver Creek, Cherry Creek, Boxelder Creek, Lame Johnny Creek, Battle Creek, Antelope Creek, Black Thunder Creek, Dry Fork Cheyenne River, Lance Creek, Lodgepole Creek
In the same basin
United States3,766 km12,700 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/sYellowstone RiverUnited States1,114 km390 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 (Q2116752) · 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
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