Sight · Yellowstone National Park
Walk right up to a wall of six-sided basalt columns.
Overview
Sheepeater Cliff is a short roadside stop beside the Gardner River, where a wall of columnar basalt rises above the water. An adjoining picnic area makes it an easy place to stretch your legs or stop for lunch on the Mammoth-to-Norris drive. The cliff is close to the parking area, so this is a quick look rather than a long outing. The gravel lot is small and can feel tight when busy.
Parkwolf’s verdictWorth a short stopMap
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Yellowstone Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Yellowstone National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Yellowstone audio tourRecorded for this place
Sheepeater Cliff“Up ahead is Sheepeater Cliff, a wall of basalt columns beside the Gardner River. This is a quick stop where you can get close enough to pick out the columns' six-sided shapes.”
Plays as you drive up to Sheepeater Cliff in the Parkwolf Yellowstone Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“First time driving through a national park. We used the Yellowstone tour on grand loop Road and it’s just like having a tour guide in your car with you.”
Guide
This basalt flow erupted about 500,000 years ago, north of and outside Yellowstone's caldera. As the lava cooled and contracted, it cracked into adjoining columns. Their cross-sections are generally hexagonal, and the direction of the columns follows the surface from which the lava cooled. The Gardner River cut through the valley and exposed the flow.
The cliff and picnic area take their name from the Tukudika, or Sheep Eaters, a band of Eastern Shoshone. The name refers to the bighorn sheep they hunted. It ties this modest roadside stop to a much older human story in the park.
A short side road off the Mammoth-to-Norris road leads to the cliff. Picnic tables make the stop handy for a simple lunch, especially if you want a break between the larger sights. Visitors mostly treat it as a brief geological stop; if you're short on time, a few minutes with the columns is enough.
Look down across the columns to pick out their six-sided tops. For a photo, include the river at the cliff's base, then get close enough to show the joints in the rock.
Wildlife
713 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
743 sightingsWolfMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
5,273 sightingsBisonMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
3,258 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
397 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
1,494 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Yellowstone. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateBunsen Peak Trail4.6 mi · 2.5 hr · 2.8 mi awaySwitchbacks climb to a broad view over Swan Lake Flats.
ModerateBunsen Peak Road Trail6 mi · 3 hr · 2.8 mi awayA level old road turns into a steep canyon descent.
EasyHoward Eaton Trail: Glen Creek to Mammoth Hot Springs4 mi · 2.5 hr · 2.9 mi awayDownhill through the Hoodoos into Mammoth’s old spring terraces.
ModerateGlen Creek Trail11.9 mi · 6.5 hr · 2.9 mi awayA long walk through sagebrush flats beneath Electric Peak.
ChallengingSportsman Lake Trail24 mi · 14.5 hr · 2.9 mi awayA long Gallatin crossing past a remote lake and over a pass.
ChallengingMount Holmes Trail21.6 mi · 11.5 hr · 3.7 mi awayA full-day climb from Winter Creek meadows to a 10,336-foot summit.
ChallengingTrilobite Lake Trail15.6 mi · 8.5 hr · 3.7 mi awayA long climb to a quiet lake beneath Mount Holmes.
ModerateSnow Pass Trail3 mi · 2.5 hr · 4.8 mi awayA steep, forested climb to a 7,450-foot pass.
Campground · 0.4 mi awayIndian Creek CampgroundA quieter camp with Electric Peak views and fewer services.
Sight · 3 mi awayGolden GateAn 11-arch viaduct bends around a golden canyon wall.
Picnic area · 3.4 mi awayApollinaris Spring Picnic AreaSix picnic tables make an easy lunch stop between Mammoth and Norris.
Sight · 3.5 mi awayOsprey FallsA hard hike to a 150-foot waterfall in Sheepeater Canyon.
Sight · 4.7 mi awayObsidian CliffA brief roadside stop for 11,000 years of toolmaking history.Parkwolf’s Yellowstone ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
