About Crecelius Cascade
Crecelius Cascade was a roadside waterfall on the eastern side of Yellowstone National Park, which was an area less known for waterfalls.
It consisted of a smaller pair of cascades dropping in succession with a cumulative height of 75ft.
For such an easy-to-access attraction, it was also quite an unheralded one (part of the reason why we managed to miss it on our first visit to Yellowstone back in June 2004).
Perhaps its obscurity was because the falls was unsigned and didn’t seem all that busy compared to the other entrance roads throughout Yellowstone National Park.
The waterfall was named by road engineer Hiram Chittenden after S.F. Crecelius who was his foreman in charge of the road passing before the falls.
By the way, the name Chittenden may be familiar because the bridge over the Yellowstone River (between Canyon Village and Artist Point just south of Canyon Junction) happened to bear his name.
Anyways, this waterfall may have had other names like “Eleanor Cascade”, “Leonora Falls”, and “Snow Fall” according to the book The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery
Experiencing Crecelius Cascade
On my first visit, I was able to spot the Crecelius Cascade after walking to the eastern end of Eleanor Lake.
On my second visit, I learned that I didn’t even have to make this walk as there was a roadside pullout right in front of the waterfall by the eastern end of Eleanor Lake.
Anyways, there was a short trail-of-use leading right up to the Crecelius Cascade once I spotted the falls.
From closer to the road, I was able to clearly see both of the drops of the falls.
However, when I got up close, the upper drop was hidden behind the wall supporting the lower drop.
Crecelius Cascade was said to be seasonal though it seemed to have fairly decent flow during our both our August 2017 visit as well as our August 2020 visit.
I attribute the cascade’s staying power to the presence of mountain thunderstorms that pop up pretty frequently throughout the Summer even well after most of the snowpack accumulated in the Winter and early Spring would have been depleted.
Authorities
Crecelius Cascade resides in Yellowstone National Park near Cody in Park County, Wyoming. It is administered by the National Park Service. For information or inquiries about the park as well as current conditions, visit the National Park Service website.
The Crecelius Cascade was on the road between Fishing Bridge and the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
The pullout nearest to the waterfall was on the east end of Eleanor Lake about 7.7 miles west of the East Entrance and 18.3 miles east of Fishing Bridge Junction.
If you happened to go as far east as Sylvan Pass like we did, then you missed it.
In case you’re uncertain about which unsigned pullout would be the correct one, there was also a signposted parking area on the west end of Eleanor Lake.
This was where we happened to park, which meant I had to walk along the road to the other side of the lake.
The Fishing Bridge Junction was also about 15.5 miles (30 minutes drive) south of the Canyon Junction, about 21 miles (30 minutes drive) northeast of the Fishing Bridge Junction, about 78 miles (over 90 minutes drive) west of Cody, 99 miles (over 2 hours drive) north of Jackson, and 55 miles east of West Yellowstone, Montana.
For geographical context, West Yellowstone was 58 miles (at least 90 minutes drive) south of Gardiner, Montana, 90 miles (over 90 minutes drive) south of Bozeman, Montana, and 321 miles (about 4.5 hours drive) north of Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Checking out the Crecelius Cascade before panning up and zoomed in on the falls
Sweep checking out the falls from a distance before walking right up to its base and looking back towards the East Entrance Road
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