Oxbow Waterfall

The Fremont River redirected, the dry oxbow bend has changed from a riparian zone to a shrubland.

NPS / Kate Zylland

You find yourself at the site of a significant act of environmental engineering. The Fremont River is currently flowing between the highway and the cliff wall to your north. This is not the “natural” course of the river. For hundreds of thousands of years, the river carved out the oxbow (or horseshoe-shaped bend) that swings around the rock to the south of the highway. In 1962, to accommodate the path of Highway 24, the state rerouted the river to its current path. The oxbow has since transformed from a lush riparian zone to a drier upland system, dominated by smaller shrubs and invasive species. The water makes the same change in elevation over a shorter distance, so the current is steeper and stronger. It erodes the surrounding rock quicker. This resulted in the waterfall below the highway here.