River
Hay River
702 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into Mackenzie River
In numbers
Length
702km
Average flow
130m³/s
Basin
48,200km²
Drop
461m
from 609 m to 148 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
702 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 609 m
- 22 kmRainbow Lake4.5 km²
- 277 kmHay Lake61 km²
- 319 kmChinchaga Rivertributary
- 492 kmRat Lake2.0 km²
- 533 kmSwan Lake10 km²
- 585 kmAlexandra Falls
- 587 kmLouise Falls
- 638 kmHay River3,528 people
- 702 kmMackenzie Riverat 148 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Alberta, British Columbia and Northwest Territories, Canada
At the mouth it carries 131 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 19 seconds. It drops from 609 m to 148 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 48,200 km², about the size of DO. 6,628 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from May to July; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Hay RiverLargest city on its banks · 3,528 people
- Hay River / Merlyn Carter Airport (YHY)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 1 km from the cityCar hire in Hay RiverDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe19 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Hay River, month by month
Highest water: from May to July
Lowest water: from January to April. 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 110 m³/s in the lowest month to 160 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
Hay River: the basin in numbers
51,764 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 6,628people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 496maverage altitude of the basin
- 406mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -2.0°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 1.3%covered by lakes
- 7%permafrost
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 64% Forest
- 1% 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
Hay River: what you find on the way
- 2WaterfallsAlexandra Falls, Louise Falls
- 19Rapids
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Hay 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.
2waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
4lakes on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (2)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Alexandra Fallskm 599
- Louise Fallskm 601
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (4)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Rainbow Lakekm 234.5km²
- Hay Lakekm 28461km²
- Rat Lakekm 5032.0km²
- Swan Lakekm 54610km²
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Mackenzie RiverCanada1,738 km10,700 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Chinchaga River, Steen River
In 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/sSmoky RiverCanada492 km340 m³/sGreat Bear RiverCanada113 km530 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2231) · 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 | Cascadyas, 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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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
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit