CONFLUENCE: Kooteny River - Columbia River
Posted by: 
arby101ca
N 49° 18.866 W 117° 39.005
11U E 452751 N 5462614
The confluence of the Columbia and Kooteny Rivers occurs at Castlegar, BC. These are two of the major rivers of the Pacific North West.
Waymark Code: WM8VJT
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 05/17/2010
Views: 7
The Columbia and Kooteny Rivers rise very close to each other in the Rocky Mountain Trench of interior British Columbia. At Canal Flats they are only about a mile apart and a small canal once joined them.
The Columbia rises at Columbia Lake and flows north in the Rocky Mountain Trench with the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Purcell and Selkirk ranges to the west. At the Big Bend the Columbia turns west and flows south in the Columbia Valley past Revelstoke to Castlegar. The Columbia is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest with a total flow averaging 265,000 cu ft/sec from a drainage basin equal in area to France. At the this confluence the two rivers are almost equal in size, drainage basin and course. The Columbia loops north, the Kooteny south. See (
visit link)
The Kooteny rises in the Rocky Mountains, at Vermillion Pass and the Beaverfoot Valley. The Vermillion joins the Kooteny at Kooteny Crossing in Kooteny National Park. It flows out of the rockies at Canal Flats and flows south down the Rocky Mountain Trench into the US. At Libby MT it turns west and north , passing Bonners Ferry ID, crossing back into Canada in the broad Kooteny valley near Creston. It forms Kooteny Lake and flows out past Nelson BC to join the Columbia at Castlegar. See (
visit link)
Both are major rivers, important as historical transportation and trade corridors and for hydroelectric power generation. They are now expensively damed and the water impounded in a series of lakes. There are five hydro dams on the Kooteny and 14 on Columbia. Further diversions like diverting the Kootenay into the Columbia at Canal Flats or the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) proposal to flood the Rocky Mountain trench to provide water to the US South West have been strongly opposed.
The confluence is not that spectacular as it is difficult to get a good overview. Perhaps climbing Sentinel Hill overlooking the Doukhobor settlement of Brilliant would provide a better perspective. The pictures and GPS reading were taken on the south bank of the Kooteny west of the Columbia, on trails below Selkirk College. The Millennium Trail and Zuckerberg Island on the west bank of the Columbia also provides good views of the river confluence.