Description
The Stikine watershed encompasses approximately (52,000 km²) 20,000 . The glacier-laden lower Stikine was compared by naturalist John Muir to Yosemite.
The Stikine River arises in the Spatsizi Plateau, the southeasternmost subplateau of the Stikine Plateau, a large and partly mountainous plateau lying between the Stikine Ranges of the Cassiar Mountains (E) and the Boundary Ranges (W) in northern British Columbia. From there the river flows in a large northward arc turning to the west and southwest, past the gold rush and Tahltan community of Telegraph Creek. Above Telegraph Creek is the spectacular 45 mi (75 km) long and 300 m (1000 ft) deep Grand Canyon of the Stikine, the upper end of which is in the area of the 130th Line of Longitude. Below Telegraph Creek, which was at the head of river navigation during the Stikine and Cassiar Gold Rushes, the river cuts through the Tahltan Highland and in this region are the confluences of the Tuya and Tahltan Rivers. Much farther down, nearer the U.S. border, is the confluence of the Iskut and several other notably large (though short) rivers such as the Porcupine and Chutine. After passing Great Glacier and Choquette Hot Springs Provincial Parks and the old border-station at Stikine, British Columbia, it passes through a steeply cut gorge in the Boundary Ranges along the Canada-U.S. border, and above that Grand Canyon of the Stikine. It briefly enters southeast Alaska for its lower 64 km (40 mi) to form a delta opposite Mitkof Island, approximately 40 km (25 mi) north of Wrangell at the confluence of Frederick Sound and Sumner Strait. The USGS describes its estuary as being Eastern Passage, which is the fjord-channel on the east side of Wrangell Island, separating it from the mainland.
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