River
Smoky Hill River
925 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Kansas River
In numbers
Length
925km
Average flow
69m³/s
Basin
49,883km²
Drop
1,038m
from 1,362 m to 324 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
925 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmCheyenne Countyat 1,362 m
- 116 kmSherman County State Lake0.5 km²
- 393 kmCedar Bluff Reservoir21 km²
- 621 kmKanopolis Lake13 km²
- 673 kmSmoky Hill River Bridge (Lindsborg, Kansas)
- 726 kmSalina47,813 people
- 754 kmSaline Rivertributary
- 762 kmSolomon Rivertributary
- 857 kmJunction City24,621 people
- 925 kmKansas Riverat 324 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Colorado and Kansas, United States
At the mouth it carries 69 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 36 seconds. It drops from 1,362 m to 324 m, 1.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 49,883 km², about the size of SK. 190,000 people live in it. Highest water: from June to July; lowest: from December to January. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 114% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- SalinaLargest city on its banks · 47,813 people
- Salina Municipal Airport (SLN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 6 km from the cityCar hire at MHK airport (Manhattan)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water22 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to June and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit
Smoky Hill River, month by month
Highest water: from June to July
Lowest water: from December to January. Best months to visit: from May to June and from August to October.
From about 23 m³/s in the lowest month to 260 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
Smoky Hill River: the basin in numbers
51,478 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 190,000people live in the basin
- 4/km²people per km²
- 694maverage altitude of the basin
- 596mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.6°Caverage air temperature
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 2.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 1% Forest
- 63% Cropland
- 25% 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
Smoky Hill River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 3Waterfalls
- 21Boat ramps
- 1MarinasHart Marina
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Smoky Hill 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.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Sherman County State Lakekm 940.5km²
- Cedar Bluff Reservoirkm 32021km²
- Kanopolis Lakekm 50613km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Agate Mound8.3 km away
- Landsman Hill0.7 km away
- Twin Buttes13 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
Smoky Hill River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Kansas RiverUnited States238 km210 m³/sTributaries (5)
Also: Saline River, Solomon River, Big Creek, Ladder Creek, North Fork Smoky Hill River
In the same basin
United States3,766 km12,700 m³/sMissouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 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/sNearby
Rivers nearby
United States500 km200 m³/s234 km awayCimarron RiverUnited States1,123 km1,100 m³/s325 km awayNorth Platte RiverUnited States1,152 km38 m³/s398 km awayNeosho RiverUnited States745 km280 m³/s387 km awayCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/s433 km awayJames RiverUnited States1,143 km18 m³/s424 km awayOsage RiverUnited States444 km310 m³/s426 km awayNiobrara RiverUnited States915 km1,000 m³/s426 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q177627) · 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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