River
Finlay River
420 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into Williston Lake
In numbers
Length
420km
Average flow
600m³/s
Basin
43,000km²
Drop
537m
from 1,195 m to 658 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
420 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,195 m
- 70 kmBicknell Lake0.3 km²
- 79 kmThutade Lake57 km²
- 83 kmCascadero Falls
- 121 kmBudd Lake0.4 km²
- 281 kmKwadacha Rivertributary
- 288 kmSuccour Lake0.4 km²
- 306 kmFoot Lake0.6 km²
- 375 kmAkie Rivertributary
- 420 kmWilliston Lakeat 658 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Watercourse in British Columbia, Canada
At the mouth it carries 600 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.2 seconds. It drops from 1,195 m to 658 m, 1.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 43,000 km², about the size of DK. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from May to July; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MackenzieLargest city on its banks · 3,262 people
- Prince George (International) Airport (YXS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 164 km from the cityCar hire at YXS airport (Prince George)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe119 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From July to AugustThe best months to visit
Finlay River, month by month
Highest water: from May to July
Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from July to August.
From about 32 m³/s in the lowest month to 620 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Finlay River: the basin in numbers
18,958 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 255people live in the basin
- 1,451maverage altitude of the basin
- 476mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -2.8°Caverage air temperature
- 17%protected areas
- 1.0%covered by lakes
- 1%glaciers
- 34%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 35% Forest
- 1% Ice
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Finlay River: what you find on the way
- 1WaterfallsCascadero Falls
- 119RapidsKodak Cataract and 118 more
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Finlay River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
5lakes on its wayLakeyas
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Cascadero Fallskm 64
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (5)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Bicknell Lakekm 540.3km²
- Thutade Lakekm 6057km²
- Budd Lakekm 920.4km²
- Succour Lakekm 2200.4km²
- Foot Lakekm 2340.6km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Alma Peak5.8 km away1,930m
- Mount Hoy11 km away
- Fort Mountain12 km away
- Diagonal Mountain3.8 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Finlay River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Akie River, Kwadacha River
In the same basin
Canada1,738 km10,700 m³/sPeace RiverCanada1,923 km2,100 m³/sLiard RiverCanada1,115 km2,400 m³/sAthabasca RiverCanada1,231 km620 m³/sSlave RiverCanada434 km3,500 m³/sSouth Nahanni RiverCanada540 km400 m³/sPeel RiverCanada684 km700 m³/sHay RiverCanada702 km130 m³/sSmoky RiverCanada492 km340 m³/sGreat Bear RiverCanada113 km530 m³/s
United StatesWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q280696) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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