- Bella Coola River
The Bella Coola River is a major river on the Pacific slope of the
Coast Mountains in southernBritish Columbia . The town of Bella Coola, which is the historic and ancient capital of theNuxalk people, is at its mouth onNorth Bentinck Arm . Bella Coola is the only town on the BC Coast between Kitimat andSquamish to have road access to the inland side of theCoast Mountains ; it is at the end of Highway 20 from Williams Lake via the Chilcotin Country. It has a vehicular ferry terminal for a special routing from Kelsey Bay, on northernVancouver Island , which also now stops at smaller communities on the inlets and islands in between.The Bella Coola is actually only a short stretch of a much larger stream which changes names at various points during its length; it is primarily the
Atnarko River , but a few miles upstream from the town of Bella Coola, at the confluence of Burnt Bridge Creek and the Talchako River with the Atnarko, the name officially changes to the Bella Coola River. This river is the northern boundary of the subgroup of theCoast Mountains known as thePacific Ranges ; the large volcanic-shield and plateau Rainbow Range is immediately north and east of the Atnarko, while beyond it and the Dean River are theKitimat Ranges , which correspond to thePacific Ranges in scope.The
drainage basin of the Bella Coola River and its tributaries is convert|5009|km2|sqmi in size. [cite book |title= Gazetteer of Canada |volume= British Columbia |publisher= Canadian Board on Geographic Names |year= 1953 |pages= p. xv]References
External links
*
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.