River
Great Bear River
113 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into Mackenzie River
In numbers
Length
113km
Average flow
530m³/s
Basin
156,500km²
Drop
112m
from 151 m to 39 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
113 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmGreat Bear Lakeat 151 m
- 0 kmGreat Bear Lake30,451 km²
- 113 kmMackenzie Riverat 39 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the Northwest Territories, Canada
At the mouth it carries 528 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.7 seconds. It drops from 151 m to 39 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 156,500 km², about the size of SR. 1,004 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from May to August; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Norman WellsLargest city on its banks · 1,027 people
- Norman Wells Airport (YVQ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 2 km from the cityCar hire at YZF airport (Yellowknife)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- JulyThe best months to visit
Great Bear River, month by month
Highest water: from May to August
Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from October to April. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: July.
From about 650 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,100 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
Great Bear River: the basin in numbers
162,693 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1,004people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 284maverage altitude of the basin
- 266mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -7.6°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 27.4%covered by lakes
- 68%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 9% Forest
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Great Bear 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
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Great Bear Lakekm 0 · 446 m deep30,451km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Great Bear River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Mackenzie RiverCanada1,738 km10,700 m³/sIn the same basin
Canada1,923 km2,100 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/sSmoky RiverCanada492 km340 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1548669) · 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 — 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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