River
Milk River
1,173 km from source to mouth · United States and Canada.
United States and CanadaFlows into Missouri River
In numbers
Length
1,173km
Average flow
17m³/s
Basin
61,642km²
Drop
877m
from 1,494 m to 617 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,173 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSouth Fork Milk Riverat 1,494 m
- 3 kmHorse Lake0.8 km²
- 64 kmCroffs Lake0.6 km²
- 494 kmFresno Reservoir11 km²
- 526 kmHavre9,834 people
- 641 kmHarlem769 people
- 844 kmHewitt Lake0.4 km²
- 850 kmNelson Reservoir, Montana14 km²
- 887 kmFrenchman Rivertributary
- 1,074 kmFort Peck Lake814 km²
- 1,173 kmMissouri Riverat 617 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Watercourse in Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA
At the mouth it carries 17 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 147 seconds. It drops from 1,494 m to 617 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 61,642 km², about the size of LV. 41,000 people live in it. Highest water: June; lowest: from December to March. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (25% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- HavreLargest city on its banks · 9,834 people
- Havre City County Airport (HVR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 6 km from the cityCar hire at GTF airport (Great Falls)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Milk River, month by month
Highest water: June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 14 m³/s in the lowest month to 90 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
Milk River: the basin in numbers
58,480 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 41,000people live in the basin
- 1/km²people per km²
- 912maverage altitude of the basin
- 328mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.6°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 36% Cropland
- 57% Pasture
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
Milk River: what you find on the way
- 21WeirsFort Belknap Dam, Paradise Diversion Dam and 19 more
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Milk 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.
6lakes on its wayLakeyas
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (6)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Horse Lakekm 20.8km²
- Croffs Lakekm 420.6km²
- Fresno Reservoirkm 32511km²
- Hewitt Lakekm 5550.4km²
- Nelson Reservoir, Montanakm 55914km²
- Fort Peck Lakekm 707814km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Hoodoo Hill8.1 km away
- Twin Buttes6.8 km away
- Red Buttes8.1 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
Milk River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Missouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sTributaries (4)
Also: Frenchman River, Battle Creek, Big Sandy Creek, North Milk River
In the same basin
United States3,766 km12,700 m³/sOhio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
United States1,114 km390 m³/s173 km awayBighorn RiverUnited States742 km150 m³/s228 km awayRed Deer RiverCanada801 km70 m³/s410 km awayBow RiverCanada587 km130 m³/s444 km awayOldman RiverCanada445 km95 m³/s444 km awayJefferson RiverUnited States134 km54 m³/s459 km awayQu'Appelle RiverCanada743 km14 m³/s449 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q217739) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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 | 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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