Most Spiraled River Flow Route in USA - Clockwise Edition

Identified route includes 8 named creeks/rivers spanning 11 states.
Keywords: Geography Viz, United States Geography, Rivers, Spiral Drainage, Clockwise
Flow path: Pine Hill slope, Unnamed drainage, First Ranch Creek, Muddy Creek, Little Medicine Bow River, Medicine Bow River, North Platte River, Platte River, Missouri River, Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico
Total distance of flow = 4645.5 km (2886.6 mi)
States: Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana
Methods and Data Sources:
The “most spiraled river flow route” was determined by summing river reach line bearings from all order 1 segments to their most downstream reach using the MERIT-Basins vector hydrography database, which was derived from a 90 m global digital elevation model (DEM) (www.reachhydro.org/home/param.... Maximum and minimum sums represent most spiraled drainages in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions.
That hydrography data was downloaded for North America and clipped to the US for adding line bearing calculated geometry. Note that for computational expediency, intra-reach curvature was not incorporated in the calculations. These tend to largely cancel out at the large scale, but I acknowledge that a different solution might be found if intra-reach curvature was included in this analysis.
To extend the route further upstream, visual examination and drainage line delineation was performed using the USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED) 1/3 arcsec (10 m) DEM product. I tried to get to within a few pixels of what might be the most spiraled drainage route, but this part of the analysis introduced some subjectivity. I’ve also mixed scales in the analysis at this step. A different solution may emerge if the initial hydrography dataset was derived from a higher resolution DEM product.
Note that there is also a fractal-related issue with doing this kind of analysis. E.g. see this analogy in regards to measuring the length of coastlines: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastli...
Photo credits:
01 Google Earth imagery accessed, 25 Nov 2022
02 Google Street View imagery accessed, 28 Nov 2022
03 Google Earth Photo contributed by Elifino 57, accessed 29 Nov 2022
04 Seminoe Dam on the North Platte River, Wyoming; Jerry N. Leggate, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; www.usbr.gov/gp/wyao/spill/sem... 16 June 2010
05 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
06 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
07 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
08 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
09 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
10 Google Street View imagery accessed, 30 Nov 2022
11 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... [cropped]
12 Memphis TN Riverboat Ride; Noel Pennington; www.flickr.com/photos/noelpen... [cropped]
13 MODIS Surface Reflectance Natural Color imagery
ESRI Topographic basemap

[@TheAlexanderkl]

Everybody knows that the Konami code is up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B,A,B,A, Start. Not sure where you got this one from, but now I'm dead in Contra so thanks.

[@cobraspottedwolf8791]

Thanks for not playing terrible music in the background!

[@mrvwbug4423]

The North Platte itself has a pretty oddball flow, it's source is also partly located in a spot where the continential divide reverses itself due to the layout of the mountains near Willow Creek Pass, there is a small pocket in that area where the east slope of the ridge is on the west side of the divide and vice versa. At least one of the feeder streams that forms the North Platte source originates in that pocket as the official source of the North Platte is considered the entirety of North Park and the surrounding mountians (most of the feeder streams come off the west side of the valley from the park range, but some feed from the east side of the valley from the Medicine Bow and Never Summer ranges, the pocket where the divide reverses is at the point where the Never summers and Park Range meet).

[@andyjay729]

The Columbia River starts in British Columbia flowing north, then makes a 180-degree turn south into Washington state, then a sharp turn to the west, a turn to the south, then another 180 near the Oregon state line to pass through the Casades and form the Columbia Gorge, then another 90 turn near Portland followed by one final 90-degree west into the Pacific.

[@TheYJ1995]

The bridge of the God's in cascade lock run east/west into Oregon and Washington. Thise states are north and south of eachother

[@andyjay729]

@@TheYJ1995 Yeah, it bends around a lot, is what I'm saying. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few small places where you have to go north from Washington to Oregon and vice versa.

[@mrvwbug4423]

@@andyjay729 there isn't any, the Columbia doesn't have any meanders that double back on themselves once the river becomes the border between OR/WA. There are two east/west crossings with the bridge of the gods being the most east/west crossing but you're still traveling WNW when traveling from OR into WA. There is a doubled back meander at the Pasco/Kennewick crossing, but that is after the river turns north into WA and stops being the state border.

[@spiderthecat]

The spiral hills that made this:

[@dannyspencer6194]

Amazing flow! And like the other person says thank you for not playing terrible music in the background. That is always really annoying.

[@ShirotheWiseWolf]

Your mic volume sounds much better in this compared to the first video of yours i watched! An interesting watch!

[@bill4263]

In the Uncompahgre canyon in Western Colorado, East Creek and West Creek flow past each other in opposite directions, separated by a small divide. They flow out of opposite ends of the canyon.

[@brianmiller1077]

The early Mississippi is fairly spiraly too.

[@RRBuilder611]

was this done in ArcGIS?

[@loganwatson7620]

Was I recommended this as a JoJo reference?

[@paulbennett7021]

Truly bizarre, but the rotation was greater when the Mississippi debouched further to the west! Is there anything comparable elsewhere in the world?

[@dbaker3751]

What is the total distance of this flow to the Gulf of Mexico?

[@geogviz]

Total distance of flow = 4645.5 km (2886.6 mi). Much longer than the most CCW spiral I found which was 1865.5 km (1159.2 mi). Good stats to include that I didn't think of, so thanks for asking!

[@Episcopalianacolyte]

River Styx?

[@leonb2637]

The Passaic River in northern New Jersey is river that has a number of changes in direction in a counter-clockwise direction in its 80 miles. It also has 2 significant waterfalls, in particular the Great Falls of Paterson, one of the first industrial cities in the USA. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passaic_River