River
Jefferson River
134 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Missouri River
In numbers
Length
134km
Average flow
54m³/s
Basin
24,688km²
Drop
178m
from 1,408 m to 1,230 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
134 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmBeaverhead Riverat 1,408 m
- 6 kmBeaverhead Rivertributary
- 6 kmBig Hole Rivertributary
- 127 kmThree Forks1,926 people
- 134 kmMissouri Riverat 1,230 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Gallatin County, Montana, United States
At the mouth it carries 54 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 46 seconds. It drops from 1,408 m to 1,230 m, 1.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 24,688 km², about the size of MK. 23,000 people live in it. Highest water: from May to June; lowest: from December to February. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (22% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Three ForksLargest city on its banks · 1,926 people
- Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 33 km from the cityCar hire at BZN airport (Bozeman)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Jefferson River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from December to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to January. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 23 m³/s in the lowest month to 140 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
Jefferson River: the basin in numbers
24,915 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 23,000people live in the basin
- 1/km²people per km²
- 2,051maverage altitude of the basin
- 380mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 2.6°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 0.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 48% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 44% 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
Jefferson River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 1Rapids
- 5Boat rampsSappington Bridge and 4 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Jefferson 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.
7mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (7)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Big Sheep Mountain10 km away
- Bulldog Mountain11 km away
- Ironrod Hills12 km away
- Lava Mountain13 km away
- Little Sheep Mountain9.5 km away
- Old Baldy Mountain15 km away
- Smelter Mountain15 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
Jefferson River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Missouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Beaverhead River, Big Hole River, Boulder River
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/s
CanadaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q284790) · 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 | 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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waterfalls
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islands
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rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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