page_title: Saskatchewan River
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Saskatchewan River / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: SASKATCHEWAN RIVER DELTA, MANITOBA, CANADA This astronaut photograph highlights a portion of the Saskatchewan River delta extending into Cedar Lake in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Credit: The featured astronaut photograph ISS015-E-7649 was acquired May 11, 2007, by the Expedition 15 crew with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 400 mm lens. The image is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science &amp; Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast.
context_page_description: The Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada, about 550 kilometres long, flowing roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg. Through its tributaries the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan, its watershed encompasses much of the prairie regions of central Canada, stretching westward to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and northwestern Montana in the United States. It reaches 1,939 kilometres to its farthest headwaters on the Bow River, a tributary of the South Saskatchewan in Alberta.
context_section_description: It is formed in central Saskatchewan, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Prince Albert, by the confluence of its two major branches, the North Saskatchewan and the South Saskatchewan, at the Saskatchewan River Forks. Both source rivers originate from glaciers in the Alberta Rockies. The St. Mary River, draining the Hudson Bay Divide region of Glacier National Park, also empties into the Saskatchewan River via
  the south fork.
  The combined stream flows east-northeast, into Codette Lake formed by the Francois Finlay Dam at Nipawin then into Tobin Lake, formed by the E.B. Campbell Dam. It then flows northeast, passing through a region of marshes, where it is joined from the northwest by the Torch River and the Mossy River. At the northern edge of the marshes it flows east, twisting between a series of small lakes into west-central Manitoba to The Pas, where it is joined from the southwest by the Carrot River. Southeast of The Pas, it forms several streams in a delta on the northwest side of Cedar Lake, then exiting the lake on its southeast end and flowing approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) to Lake Winnipeg, entering on the northwest shore north of Long Point. The waters of Lake Winnipeg eventually drain into Hudson Bay, via the Nelson River.
  The river, like the province of Saskatchewan, takes its name from the Cree word kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, meaning "swift flowing river". The river and its tributaries provided an important route of transportation for First Nations and early European trappers.
caption: May 11, 2007 NASA photo
  of a portion of the Saskatchewan River Delta and Cedar Lake[5]
exif: {}