Cascading from the 590,000 year old Canyon Rhyolite lava flow, Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River is the largest volume waterfall in the Rocky Mountains of the United States.

Jim Bridger and fellow explorer James Gremmell claimed they visited the falls in 1846.

In 1851, Bridger provided missionary Father Pierre-Jean De Smet a map showing the location of the falls.

[1] The earliest images of the falls were drawn by Private Charles Moore, a member of the U.S. Army escort of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition which explored the Yellowstone River in August–September 1870.

[2] During the Hayden Expedition of 1871, the falls were documented in photographs by William Henry Jackson and later in paintings by Thomas Moran.

The Lower Falls area is located just to the south and east of Canyon Village in Yellowstone National Park.