Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kepler Cascades tumbles down a gorge near Old Faithful Village.
4.1/15.3 Kepler Cascades
of the Firehole River. Kepler was the given name of the 12-year-
old son of Wyoming Territory's Governor John Hoyt. The boy was with his father in a group
searching for suitable routes from Wyoming into the park in 1881, and he was such a good
sport, that Supt. Norris named these pretty cascades for him.
The Firehole River has cut a deep gorge in the Madison Plateau lava here. Where the
erosion is continuing, a series of cascades or small waterfalls drops a total of more than 100
feet (30 m). Downstream from the viewing platform, the canyon narrows radically. These
steep walls below the cascades (called Devil's Gate or Devil's Gorge) claimed the life of a Yel-
lowstone Park employee who was climbing here in 1976.
Hell and the Devil in Yellowstone
The first observers of Yellowstone Park's features were often reminded of the Prince of
Darkness and his abode. As historian Aubrey L. Haines writes in
Yellowstone Place Names:
Mirrors of History
(1996): “For a time, the devil had a proprietary interest in thirty-nine
Park features, with the word 'hell' appearing in eight others and 'Satan' in one. But in the
last half century, he has been largely dispossessed, so that his influence is now minimal.
A mere three place names remain: Devils Thumb and Devils Kitchen at Mammoth Hot
Springs, in addition to the Devils Den …” (located near Tower Fall).
