page_title: Kootenay River
section_title: Recreation
hierarchical_section_title: Kootenay River / Recreation
caption_attribution_description: English: Boathouses on Kootenay Lake near Balfour, British Columbia
context_page_description: The Kootenay is a major river in the Northwest Plateau, within the borders of southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Kootenay River runs 781 kilometres from its headwaters in the Kootenay Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, flowing from British Columbia's East Kootenay region into northwestern Montana, then west into the northernmost Idaho Panhandle and returning to British Columbia in the West Kootenay region, where it joins the Columbia at Castlegar.
  Fed mainly by glaciers and snow melt, the river drains a rugged, sparsely populated region of more than 50,000 km²; over 70 percent of the basin is in Canada. From its highest headwaters to its confluence with the Columbia River, the Kootenay falls more than 2,000 metres in elevation. Above its confluence with the Columbia, the Kootenay is comparable in terms of length, drainage area and volume, but has a steeper gradient and is characterized by larger falls and rapids.
context_section_description: Many national, provincial and state parks, wilderness preserves, protected areas and national forests lie partially or wholly within the Kootenay River watershed. In Canada, these include those listed below as well as many others.
  Bugaboo Provincial Park
  Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area
  Gilnockie Provincial Park
  Goat Range Provincial Park
  Kianuko Provincial Park
  
   
  Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park
  Kootenay National Park
  Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park
  Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Provincial Park and Protected Area
   
  St. Mary's Alpine Provincial Park
  Top of the World Provincial Park
  Valhalla Provincial Park
  West Arm Provincial Park
   
  Popular Banff National Park lies just across the BC-Alberta border, Yoho National Park sits to the north, and Glacier National Park in the northeast. The U.S. portion of the watershed includes Kootenai National Forest
  and Kaniksu National Forest (part of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, which stretch southwards into the state).
  In Kootenay National Park alone, there are over 200 kilometres (120 mi) of hiking trails, ranging from short day hikes to long backpacking trips. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are popular on the park's trails in the winter. Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, which sits right next to Kootenay in the Rocky Mountains, also has an extensive trail system affording extensive views of the surrounding ranges. Kikomun Creek Provincial Park, on the northeast shore of Lake Koocanusa, includes campgrounds and access to boat launches on the east shore of the lake. The Kootenai River Trail along the Montana section of the river,
  about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) long, follows the river from Libby to Kootenai Falls and the well known Swinging Bridge across the Kootenai. Skattebo Reach Trail, on the lower river, is about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) long, running from Brilliant to Glade. Further downstream, five separate sites around Kootenay Lake form the Kootenay Lake Provincial Park. West Arm Provincial Park is on the impounded stretch of the Kootenay River just west of Kootenay Lake, and to the northeast of Nelson. Smaller Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, one of the more popular recreation areas in the West Kootenay, sits across the river from West Arm.
  Fishing is generally good on the middle reaches of the Kootenay River and in Kootenay Lake. Westslope cutthroat trout, bull trout, kokanee salmon (the landlocked Pacific salmon), rainbow trout and white sturgeon are among the many species found in the river.  Kokanee and rainbows are commonly found in Lake Koocanusa. Kootenai Falls, which drops some 90 metres (300 ft) within a run of a few hundred meters, forms a natural boundary between fishes of the upper and lower river, but Libby Dam, several kilometres upstream, is an even more formidable barrier. Fish in the Kootenay have traditionally been abundant but the construction of the dam may have led to declines in the population of sturgeon, among other fishes, because of changes in water flow. The best season for fishing is from June to November. One may fish from banks, sandbars and islands, or from boats. Because of the size and strength of the river, fishing from drift boats is easier than from the shore. Also, because the Kootenay's primary sources are glaciers, fishing conditions are quite different from most rivers in Montana and Idaho, which are fed by snowmelt.
  In the United States, the Kootenay, with its "exceptional" trout fishing, is considered a Blue Ribbon fishery.
  Steep and strewn with rapids, the Kootenay, despite being unsuitable for commercial transportation of agricultural and mineral products, is considered an outstanding whitewater river. Whitewater rafting is popular on the Kootenay in two stretches: in Jennings Canyon between the Libby Dam in Montana and Bonners Ferry in Idaho, and in the upper reaches of the river in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia.
  Rafting the middle Kootenay between Libby Dam and Bonners Ferry is best at flows of 230 to 340 cubic metres per second (8,000 to 12,000 cu ft/s). The run, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from east
caption: Boathouses on Kootenay Lake near Balfour, British Columbia
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D40", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.4", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:18 20:34:11", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3614", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5373", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:07:13 13:02:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:07:13 13:02:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "55", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "0", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "0", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3478", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "82", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}