The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, and stretching east from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park. It flows northeast to its confluence with the Missouri River on the North Dakota side of the border, about 25 miles west of present-day Williston.
The Yellowstone River watershed is a river basin spanning across Montana, with minor extensions into Wyoming and North Dakota, toward headwaters and terminus, respectively. The Yellowstone Basin watershed contains a system of rivers, including the Yellowstone River, and four tributary basins: the Clarks Fork Yellowstone, Wind River and Bighorn River, Tongue River, and Powder River. These rivers form tributaries to the Missouri River.
The mainstem of the Yellowstone River is more than long. At the headwaters, elevations exceed above sea level and descends to at the confluence with the Missouri River in far western North Dakota. The watershed spans . The area contains many lakes, including Yellowstone Lake. There are no storage dams located on the mainstem of the Yellowstone River. However, the watershed contains five major reservoirs built on tributary rivers: Bull Lake, Boysen, Buffalo Bill, Big Horn, Tongue River, and Lake De Smet reservoirs.
The river rises in northwestern Wyoming in the Absaroka Range, on the Continental Divide in southwestern Park County. The river starts where the North Fork and the South Fork of the Yellowstone River converge. The North Fork, the larger of the two forks, flows from Younts Peak. The South Fork flows from the southern slopes of Thorofare Mountain. The Yellowstone River flows northward through Yellowstone National Park, feeding and draining Yellowstone Lake, then dropping over the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls at the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone within the confines of the park.