River
Pend Oreille River
209 km from source to mouth · Canada and United States.
Canada and United StatesFlows into Columbia River
In numbers
Length
209km
Average flow
740m³/s
Basin
66,800km²
Drop
223m
from 624 m to 401 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
209 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 624 m
- 4 kmSandpoint7,835 people
- 12 kmDover752 people
- 47 kmPriest Rivertributary
- 56 kmLake Pend Oreille360 km²
- 57 kmAlbeni Falls Dam
- 59 kmOldtown221 people
- 164 kmMetaline Falls Bridge
- 185 kmSalmo Rivertributary
- 207 kmWaneta Dam
- 209 kmColumbia Riverat 401 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River, tributary of the Columbia
At the mouth it carries 745 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.4 seconds. It drops from 624 m to 401 m, 1.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 66,800 km², about the size of LK. 392,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from March to April; lowest: February and from July to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (31% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- SandpointLargest city on its banks · 7,835 people
- Spokane International Airport (GEG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 103 km from the cityCar hire at GEG airport (Spokane)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water39 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe10 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Pend Oreille River, month by month
Highest water: from March to April
Lowest water: February and from July to September. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): January. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 270 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,900 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
Pend Oreille River: the basin in numbers
67,056 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 392,000people live in the basin
- 6/km²people per km²
- 1,498maverage altitude of the basin
- 599mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 3.9°Caverage air temperature
- 15%protected areas
- 2.0%covered by lakes
- 8.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 78% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 11% 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
Pend Oreille River: what you find on the way
- 4WaterfallsSweet Creek Falls, PeeWee Falls and 2 more
- 10Rapids
- 38Boat rampsSandpoint Landing, Springy Point Boat Ramp, Ruby Ferry and 35 more
- 1MarinasWindbag Marina
- 2River beachesCity Beach, Dog Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Pend Oreille 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
9mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Pend Oreillekm 54 · 351 m deep360km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (9)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Bald Mountain14 km away
- Butler Mountain14 km away
- Gold Hill3.5 km away
- Gold Mountain5.8 km away
- Grief Mountain15 km away
- Grouse Mountain10 km away
- Reed Hill8.4 km away
- Sunnyside Mountain11 km away
1 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Pend Oreille River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Columbia RiverUnited States2,000 km7,500 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Canada780 km780 m³/s34 km awayClark ForkUnited States499 km620 m³/s130 km awaySnake RiverUnited States1,735 km1,600 m³/s332 km awayThompson RiverCanada489 km770 m³/s316 km awayFraser RiverCanada2,657 km3,500 m³/s390 km awayBow RiverCanada587 km130 m³/s441 km awayOldman RiverCanada445 km95 m³/s441 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q270499) · 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
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