Virginia Cascades is a cascade type waterfall on the Gibbon River

Gibbon River

The Gibbon River is a river in Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming, the United States. It rises in the center of the park at Grebe Lake. It flows for a short distance into Wolf Lake. Below Wolf Lake, the river flows through Virginia Cascades into the Norris valley. It flows near the Norris...

 in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

. Virginia Cascades is located just south of the Norris-Canyon road approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) east of Norris Junction. A one-way road provides access to the north side of the cascades.

Virginia Cascades was named in 1886 to honor Virginia Gibson, the wife of Charles Gibson, the head of the Yellowstone Park Association concessions by Ed Lamartine who built the first wagon road between Norris and Canyon. In 1880, then superintendent Philetus Norris

Philetus Norris

Philetus W. Norris was the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and was the first person to be paid for that position.- Early life :...

 had named the cascades, Norris Falls but geologist Arnold Hague

Arnold Hague

Arnold Hague was a United States geologist who did many geological surveys in the U.S., of which the best known was that for Yellowstone National Park. He also had assignments in China and Guatemala. He became a member of the U. S...

, although he did not like to give personal names to scenic features, agreed to the name Virginia Cascades because he thought it useful to name park features after states in the union.