The Only River That Flows Into Both the Atlantic and the Pacific 

Of course, Pacific and Atlantic Creek were named after two cousins, Jason Atlantic and Robert Pacific, who got in an argument over which creek was the best.

That one fish which accidentally took one wrong turn and is now in a different ocean 👁👄👁

Apologies if you were trying to go from California to Maine without crossing a bridge or waterway, it is impossible

@4:10 I learned more about Colorado's water system than 99.9 percent of people against my will. My mom wrote her college thesis on the Colorado water infrastructure used to get water across the Conntental Divide. An entire summer of my childhood was spent looking at various reservoirs, pumping stations, outflowpipes and dams.

There's a very interesting case in the Amazon as well. In the rainforest of southern Venezuela, a branch of the Orinoco splits off towards the south. Rather than eventually ending up back in the Orinoco's main flow and reaching the Atlantic Ocean in northeastern Venezuela, this branch flows south, where it merges with the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon, and the water from this branch eventually reaches the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil. This connection is actually navigable by ship, and was first discovered in, if I remember correctly, the 17th century. However, the captain who had made this journey was believed to have been mistaken, as no accurate maps were available, and others could not find such a route across the many branching streams of the South American rainforest. Eventually, as the mapping of the continent and it's waterways improved, some two centuries after this original discovery, people realized that yes, it is in fact possible to sail up the Orinoco and come back down to the Atlantic Ocean over the Amazon.

Ooh, we're starting our way down Wikipedia's "List of unusual drainage systems" article! Next up: Slims River, whose drainage basin was changed in 2016 by global warming, and the Danube Sinkhole, where water in the upper Danube River falls into sinkholes and pops back out in the Rhine instead.

I love how you also somehow managed to misdraw the Missouri River that badly when you can literally see it on the satellite map.

There's also a river in Argentina, Arroyo Partido that does the same thing and goes to the Pacific (Valdivia, Chile) or the Atlantic (Viedma). So technically the southernmost part of the continent is also an island.

Fun fact: Continental Divide Trail thru-hikers get to hike by the Parting-of-the-Waters. And it really is a dinky little creek that would be completely forgettable if not for this particularly interesting fact. =) And--I'm not naming names here--but someone might have peed into the watershed in that area just to brag that they were polluting two oceans at the same time.

I grew up in Colorado, and camping on either side of the Continental Divide was so interesting, because they are basically like separate climates. Like he said, 80% of the water that falls in Colorado was on the west of the CD, so the snowpack and vegetation was much different on either side

There is also a smaller but interesting basin in North Dakota called the devils lake basin which can if overfilled can enter the red river basin but hasn’t for centuries. Maybe it could be a decent half as interesting video for the future. Over the last 30 years, the lake has fluctuated over 50ft in elevation and has caused many roads and a few towns to be engulfed by the rising water level.

In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin River used to split by Portage with part flowing into Lake Michigan and the St. Lawrence Seaway and the rest flowing into the Mississippi. Since the dikes were built in Portage, very low water from the Wisconsin River still splits off into the Fox/Lake Michigan but it does happen.

This made me think about what an aquatic species' maps would look like. Bodies and streams of water would be highly detailed with underwater features, and continents would be vast blank expanses of irrelevance. Land creatures would be "sea monster" analogs.

Thanks to CGP Grey for helping me name and recognise US state flags. As a resident of the UK this is disturbing.

I now really want a Wendover video on Colorado's water infrastructure crossing the continental divide. Side note: I'm pretty sure that at the beginning the dot for "If you pour some water here it will drain into the pacific" is in the great basin and so uhh... won't

I love the name origin jokes, it reminds me of the time I told GPT-3 to write me a thriller with only the text "it was a dark and stormy night.." it outlined a story taking place in rural estate in the mountains called "Mountaingate estate" and then it went on to explain that it was named that after te owner, Mr William Mountaingate.

In Russian geographical law the river has only one true course, and all others are "streams". For example, there is a Kuban river, and then there is a Protoka stream branching from it near the city of Slavyansk-na-Kubany (formerly Kopıl under Ottomans). Only the southern course is meant as "Kuban river", because this is where the majority of water pressure is. If classified under soviet rules, this American river would have a veeery long almost completely unrelated "stream".

The Committee's Punch Bowl (2:01) in Canada drains into the Pacific & Arctic Oceans - not the Atlantic. (Though it depends on if you consider Hudson Bay the Atlantic or Arctic Ocean)

There's a tiny little irrigation canal over South Pass, Wyoming, that moves water from the Green River basin to water some hay fields on the Atlantic side of the Continental Divide.

Welp next "Things we got wrong" Committees punchbowl is in Canada not the US so the US Fish and Wildlife service was wrong. What I meant to say was The Canadian Wildlife Service...

And of course, nobody remembers Divide Creek at Kicking Horse Pass. Not to mention, it's easy easier to get to than Two Oceans Pass.

0:38 my immediate first thought 👏🏼

As a Saskatchewanian I view this as an absolute win

The Little Minnesota River normally flows from South Dakota into Minnesota into Big Stone Lake, which outlets south into the Minnesota River and eventually the Mississippi. However, during periods of high water, the Little Minnesota overtops and some of the water crosses the Laurentain Divide into Traverse Lake, which outlets north into the Bois des Sioux River, which eventually enters the Red River of the North and ends up in Hudson Bay.

The Columbian Ice Fields in Alberta, Canada is the only water source to flow into 3 oceans. Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic

There is another endoheric basin you may have forgotten about: it contains the Lake Of The Woods, which is along the continental divide near Dubois, WY. You can get to it by taking Union Pass Road, & Union Pass is just a few miles away from the Lake Of The Woods. Also nearby is Three Waters Mountain, which looks fairly easy to hike to. Its summit is the point where the Mississippi, Colorado & Columbia River basins meet. Check them out on Google Earth! 😁

I've lived in Grand Teton park for 4 years. Two Oceans Lake is one of my favorite recommendations. Thanks for the video.

There's a spot sorta like this in the state of Maine in the USA. The Saint John River flows northeast-ish through Maine, then into New Brunswick (Canada), then into the ocean. Near its headwaters, the Saint John Pond chain collects and sends that water down the river, but the Penobscot River is just two miles away from Fifth Saint John Pond, so at one time, the pond was dammed, the pond's level raised and water and logs were sent southward through Maine down the Penobscot River into the ocean - completely different route, and 150 miles apart at the ocean ends of the rivers.

The Great Basin was once the floor of the prehistoric Lake Bonneville. The Great Salt Lake is a remnant of this.

There is also Divide Creek near Lake Louise that splits with the eastern path going to the Arctic Ocean and the western arm to the Pacific Ocean.

There is also Great Divide Creek on the BC/Alberta border that forks and flows down both sides of the Continental Divide, to the Pacific and Arctic oceans.

I went to another place that does this this summer, so it isn't the only place. The long draw reservoir which is just north of rocky mountain national park flows on the west side, directly into the Colorado river, which is at least supposed to make it to the Pacific Ocean via the Gulf of California. On the east side, it takes a less direct route, flowing through several River including La Poudre creek, the south platte river, and eventually the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

There's also Divide Creek on the border between British Columbia and Alberta that drains into both the Pacific and the Arctic.

Best video yet with the half as interesting exception that spiking Committees Punchbowl actually goes to the Arctic Ocean and not the Atlantic Ocean. I will be waiting to see this correction at the end of the year and if not shown I will meet you Sam at the Punchbowl and we will actually drink punch in it’s waters to prove you wrong because that’s what the internet cares about.

If you are collecting errors, the statement at 2:07 is wrong. Committee's Punch Bowl drains to the Arctic Ocean not the Atlantic Ocean.

if I recall, through the existence of some canals, the Mississippi River connects to the Great Lakes and then from there connects to the St. Lawrence River and out to the Atlantic. And if I'm led to believe that Africa is a separate continent because of the Suez Canal I can be allowed to believe that North America is actually just 3 giant islands.

At 2:09 you said Isa Lake was in a state, Wyoming, but just said that Committee’s Punch Bowl was in a country, Canada. If only there was some state-like areas of land in Canada that you could use to be more specific

Also, albeit artificially, the headstreams of the Colorado river, which are diverted under the Continental Divide via the Azotea Tunnel, and into the Rio Grande system (via the San Juan-Chama Project), which flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

5:40 the best joke sam ever made

There is more than just that stream that make part of North America into an island. The combination of the Erie Canal, the Hudson River, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River mean that technically, a big chunk of the northeastern US and New Brunswick are technically an island.

Loving the new fun style - pls keep experimenting and exploring, giving us eclectic educational content.

There are not many people who would be especially amused by a pun about cutthroat explorers seeking the Northwest Passage and cutthroat trout Congratulations, this video reached one of them

This was full as interesting! Liked this one

Thanks! Always appreciate learning odd facts!

England has a river like this, but on a much smaller scale: Raise Beck in the Lake District National Park just north of Grasmere. It splits just above the pass of Dunmail Raise, and one part flows north to the Irish sea and the other flows south to Morecambe bay (which is still the Irish sea but a different part). Interestingly it only splits when it's been raining a lot. In drier weather it only flows north and the south bed dries up

The best vid in some time, keep up the great work guys!

The Granround river goes from the Pacific to the snake and back around to the Pacific just like the James river does. The James river flows from the Atlantic to Buchanon down to Roenocke To Danville Virginia to north Carolina and back to the Atlantic .

When I was 16 I got a job at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone cleaning the massive 3 story lobby. I was told something like _"You will have about 3 hours worth of work a day cleaning up after visitors, which we do want you to do. But your real job is to be the 'friendly park employee' that many people want to talk to."_ So I said _"Ok, so in other words, I'm a park information guy who's 'actual job' is supposedly a Houseman in the hotel."_ They said yes. So I told them I'm from a clearing in the middle of a cornfield in Illinois and don't know anything about Yellowstone. They said that was ok, and gave me two books to read. One was a book of Yellowstone facts I would need to know, the other was a sort of a comic book style called 'Yarns of the Yellowstone', with a bunch of funny stories I was supposed to memorize. So I read them both every night after work and set the facts and 'Yarns' to memory. Being from an Alabama family, I could do a good hillbilly accent, so I started cleaning in the lobby and talking to all the tourists. One of the 'Yarns' was a story about Isa Lake. There was supposedly a fur trapper in the 1800s that discovered Isa Lake. He noticed that there were two creeks, on a each end of the lake. He knew he was at the Continental Divide, and that these creeks flowed east and west, so he (correctly) assumed on the east side the waters would flow to and drain into the Atlantic Ocean, and the west side creek waters would flow to and drain into the Pacific Ocean. But he was confused as to what to call this place. He shouted to the water _"Is you a Creek or is you a Lake?"_ The water replied _"Isa Lake."_ :) I loved telling that story. Two years ago, after 50 years had passed, I found a copy of one of those 'Yarns of the Yellowstone' comics on Amazon. Even though "50¢" is printed on the cover, they wanted $20 for it. And I had to have it, if for no other reason, to show my grand children...

There's a creek at Kicking Horse Pass that does the same split. One side goes to The Pacific and the other to Hudson's Bay.

Great Video, Very Interesting, in New Zealand we do have a river (the Manawatu) that flows through the Main Divide which runs the length of the country, thanks for sharing

Near Brasilia, Brazil's capital, there is a place called "águas emendadas" (literally joined waters) where there is a water sprout that flows both north to the Amazon basin and south to the Parana basin. There is also a river (Rio Casiquiari) in Venezuela that flows both ways: north to the Orinoco and south to the Amazon. In the 1970's some guys sailed a hobbycat from Miami, went upstream the Orinoco, crossed this river and then downstream to Manaus and finally Belem at the mouth of the Amazon river in the Atlantic.

i love your videos so much. keep it up

Divide Creek (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_Creek) in BC/AB on the border between Yoho National Park and Banff National Park flows along the continental divide a short distance then forks with one side draining through the Bow River east to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean, and the other side draining west to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Kicking Horse River.

Bisexual Wyoming straight rawdoggin' both sides of the continent.

I believe there is a cow pasture in NE North Dakota where, when the water is high, and the pasture is flooded it drains into two different drainages. Some of it goes southeast into the Sheyenne river then to the Red river and eventually to Hudson Bay. Water that drains West ends up in the James River, the Missouri and the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

3:47 never thought I would hear North America is an island, definitely the chunkiest island in history

I was gonna point out the Panama Canal does as well. Then I realised it doesn't really "flow", it just has water shifted back and forth via waterlocks.

Thanks for the video. Wyoming has a couple of basins from what I've seen here. Maybe they are only considered to be one basin and are connected in some way. Obviously, they aren't as notable as the Great Basin. I might have to try to find a way to visit that creek someday.

I enjoy that in highlighting the area of North America that is "technically" an island they didn't highlight the area that is literally an island

Too cool ! ! ! Now do one on the Lunghin Pass, up in the mountains above St. Moritz, Switzerland: Europe's only three-way watershed. It features a triangular stone marker with a recess on top like an ashtray. A raindrop falling in there will run partly to the Black Sea via the Danube, partly through Italy's Po River to the Adriatic / Med, and partly down the Rhine to the North Sea / Atlantic Ocean.

you really missed the boat on one half as interesting fact. the part of Isa lake that flows to the Atlantic exits the lake to the west & the park of Isa Lake that flows to the Pacific exits to the east. Get your act together Sam!

In the autobiography of Osborn Russel, " Nine Years In The Rocky Mountains", he tells of a csmp high on a mountain side where a spring bubbled out of a Crack in the rock. One of the other trappers noticed that halfway down the mountainside it split at a large rock. They mused that one side went west toward the Pacific and the other toward the east and the Missouri watershed. They were amused that the spring wound up in two different oceans. ( this is a lesson to never let anyone borrow a book you treasure. They never returned that book and even claimed they never borrowed it.)

"To find out how it works I put Amy into a boat..."

Really interesting, thanks for this. I once spent a lot of time estimating the co-ordinates of the North American continental divide by clicking on a map with drainage basins overlain on terrain. Wasn't aware of this freak river at the time.

Terribly interesting! Never ever heard of any of this. Thank you!

The way I found out about this was via trying to locate where the three Sweetwater River crossings were and why you crossed it three times in the Oregon Trail games. Turns out, the Sweetwater River is a direct part of this creek which couldn't decide which direction to go.

GREAT episode guys!!! I love telling this random fact.

If you spill some water in nevada it will either evaporate or go into the great basin and evaporate. The colorado river doesn't reach the pacific most of the time as it is irrigated so much.

This video would have been even better with some on-location reporting from Amy at Two Oceans Pass

@2:15 ish: I think labeling Canada here as "CA" would make it easily confused with the acronym for California, especially seeing as you already have Wyoming's acronym on screen. I would have gone with "CAN" or "AB" as Committee's Punch Bowl is in the province of Alberta.

Great video , thanks !

That *was* super interesting! Thank you!

I don't know what you call it when a river CROSSES OVER ITSELF after it has split at a Continental divide ... but there is one of those too (if you count man-made canals). The Saint Mary River has two different outflows from Lower Saint Mary Lake, in Montana. The main flow joins the Oldman river then the Saskatchewan River before it flows into Lake Winnipeg and then Hudson Bay. But a canal splits water off of it right as it leaves Lower Saint Mary Lake, it crosses over the other river on a bridge (!!), joins the North Fork of the Milk River, crosses into Canada, then eventually back into Montana, and joins the Missouri river, and thence South to the Gulf of Mexico. The project to build this canal system was actually the subject of an extended legal dispute between the U.S. and Canada in the early 20th century.

It's a cool place,Two Ocean Plateau. Been there, done that! Fixed a little trail and caught /released a few hundred Golden Trout while we were there. If you go there during a thunderstorm you might get to see some St. Elmo's Fire. That is a memory that lasts. Fifty years so far for me!

Water shed divides are interesting. One of my favorites is in Chisholm Minnesota. The water splits three ways between the Hudson Bay watershed, the Great lakes watershed, and of course the Mississippi watershed. With the exception of a few meandering creeks it's said that no rivers flow into Minnesota. All rivers flow out. That's why where I live is called the headwaters region of Minnesota.

You should do do a video on the only triple divide mountain which is in the Canadian Rockies.

The “Parting of the Waters” is a hidden gem. I for one have stood with one leg in Pacific creek and the other in Atlantic creek. If you have been there you would know it parts at the base of a big spruce tree. It is watched over in the summer months by millions of MOSQUITOES. Another little fact. From the Parting of the Waters it is over 23 miles to the nearest road and any direction.

Glad you mentioned Isa Lake. It was cool to go there,

Divide Creek in Alberta also splits at the continental divide - One branch flows to the Arctic Ocean and the other flows to the Pacific Ocean.

Don't forget about Snowdome where the glacier goes into the artic, Atlantic, and pacific really interesting spot.

3:30 I was unaware that the Missouri River jumps out of its Channel at Bismarck North Dakota proceeds straight East on I-94 till it gets to Fargo then goes south on I-29 till it reaches Sioux City Iowa!

Never knew there was such a place. Thanks!

We used to always go Elk hunting up the pacific creek drainage when I was a kid. Nice area to hunt between to National Parks

Issac Newton determines where water goes.

Not far away from that is Three Waters Mountain, which separates not only the Missouri and Columbia watersheds, but also that of the Colorado River too!

When Alexander Mackenzie was the first to travel overland across North America in 1793, he crossed the divide near the headwaters of the Peace R. in BC. At the top was 2 lakes that drained into two different oceans: he named them Arctic and Pacific. Today it is a Provincial Park, Arctic Pacific PP, northeast of Prince George.

Hey HAI, as a dude who lives in regina saskatchewan, you pronounced saskatchewanians wrong, you did it like hawian, but its more of a wan as in want but removing the T sound(around the 3:55 mark

"All water will eventually go to the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean" Crater Lake: Hold my beer.

1:50 Of course the two most famous basins are the Bajio in Mexico and the GDB in southern Wyoming.

Fascinating information, never heard about that. But there is a triple divide pass. Did any commenter mention Triple Divide Pass in Glacier National Park? "The Triple Divide Pass Trail is a unique piece of Glacier National Park as it brings together three oceans as water flows off of its soaring mountain peaks and sweeps down into the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans."

water in the Climax mine (Climax Colorado) had to be carefully monitored as some had to go to the Arkansas River and some had to go into a creek that eventually made its way into the Colorado River

Loved the Saskatchewan shoutout 👍

I live in northwest Indiana just a few miles from Lake Michigan, but I’m outside of the lake’s watershed. Any rain here goes to the Mississippi River and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.

It's said if you find Henry Hudson's remains and bury his bones at this creek, his soul will finally rest.

3:53 I appreciate that shoutout, here I grew up thinking I was pretty much landlocked

Finally! The NorthWest Passage! Quick someone go tell Lewis and Clark!

This felt more unhinged than usual. I approve.

It's also interesting that Congress passed laws that prevent moving water west across the Continental Divide. I suggest that excess solar and wind energy be used to pump water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin during floods.

1:17 Thankyou for showing Hyderabad, India

after watching jet lag half as interesting will never be the same I can never unsee sams face when I hear his voice now