Kootenay River

Common card · No. 382826

The Kootenay River or Kootenai River is a major river of the Northwest Plateau in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Kootenay River runs 781 kilometres (485 mi) from its headwaters in the Kootenay Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, flowing from British Columbia's East Kootenay region into northwestern Montana, then west into the northernmost Idaho Panhandle and returning to British Columbia in the West Kootenay region, where it joins the Columbia at Castlegar. The river is known as the "Kootenay" in Canada and by the Ktunaxa Nation, and as the "Kootenai" in the United States and by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and Kootenai Tribe of Idaho. Fed mainly by glaciers and snowmelt, the river drains a rugged, sparsely populated region of more than 50,000 km2 (19,000 mi2), of which over 70...

Read on Wikipedia · Image USEPA Environmental-Protection-Agency, Public domain