River
Smoky River
492 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into Peace River
In numbers
Length
492km
Average flow
340m³/s
Basin
50,300km²
Drop
1,193m
from 1,507 m to 314 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
492 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,507 m
- 84 kmGrande Cache3,276 people
- 200 kmKakwa Rivertributary
- 290 kmWapiti Rivertributary
- 295 kmSimonette Rivertributary
- 405 kmLittle Smoky Rivertributary
- 492 kmPeace Riverat 314 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Right tributary of the Peace River in Canada
At the mouth it carries 339 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 7.4 seconds. It drops from 1,507 m to 314 m, 2.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 50,300 km², about the size of CR. 104,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to June; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Grande CacheLargest city on its banks · 3,276 people
- Grande Prairie Airport (YQU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 145 km from the cityCar hire at YQU airport (Grande Prairie)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Smoky River, month by month
Highest water: from April to June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 600 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 River: the basin in numbers
51,523 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 104,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 1,018maverage altitude of the basin
- 567mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 1.1°Caverage air temperature
- 12%protected areas
- 0.8%covered by lakes
- 3%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 67% Forest
- 13% Cropland
- 6% 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 River: what you find on the way
- 1WaterfallsEaton Falls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Smoky 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.
20mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (20)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mount Robson7.2 km away · prominence 2,829 m3,954m
- Whitehorn Mountain11 km away · prominence 1,747 m3,399m
- Resplendent Mountain9.3 km away · prominence 483 m3,425m
- The Dome8.2 km away3,460m
- The Helmet6.4 km away · prominence 128 m3,420m
- Mount Phillips9.6 km away · prominence 524 m3,246m
- Lynx Mountain6.8 km away · prominence 440 m3,192m
- Mumm Peak3.1 km away · prominence 414 m2,964m
12 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
Smoky River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Peace RiverCanada1,923 km2,100 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Wapiti River, Kakwa River, Little Smoky River, Cutbank River, Jackpine River, Muddywater River, Puskwaskau River, Simonette River
In the same basin
Canada1,738 km10,700 m³/sLiard RiverCanada1,115 km2,400 m³/sAthabasca RiverCanada1,231 km620 m³/sSlave RiverCanada434 km3,500 m³/sFinlay RiverCanada420 km600 m³/sSouth Nahanni RiverCanada540 km400 m³/sPeel RiverCanada684 km700 m³/sHay RiverCanada702 km130 m³/sGreat Bear RiverCanada113 km530 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1551634) · 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 | 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit