Sunwapta River

Infobox River
river_name = Sunwapta River

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image_size = 280px
caption = Sunwapta Falls
origin = Athabasca Glacier
coord|52|12|30|N|117|14|14|W|scale:10000_region:CA-AB_type:river
mouth = Athabasca River
coord|52|31|41|N|117|41|05|W|scale:10000_region:CA-AB_type:river
basin_countries = flag|Alberta CAN
length =
elevation = m to ft|2037|abbr=yes
mouth_elevation = m to ft|1300|abbr=yes
discharge =
watershed =

The Sunwapta River is a major tributary of the Athabasca River in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada.

Course

The headwaters of the Sunwapta River are near the Columbia Icefield in the valley west northwest of Sunwapta pass, which divides Jasper National Park from Banff National Park. Several kilometres down the valley from the pass is Sunwapta Lake, at the toe of the Athabasca Glacier, which is considered the nominal source for the river. The Sunwapta river then continues to run northwest through Jasper National Park, following the Icefields Parkway, and finally joins the Athabasca River shortly after Sunwapta Falls. [Mussio Ventures. "Central Alberta Backroad Mapbook." Burnaby: Backroad Mapbooks (2002), pp. 31-32]

"Sunwapta" is a Stoney Indian word meaning "turbulent river." Geologist A. P. Coleman named the river in 1892. [Karamitsanis, Aphrodite (1991). "Place Names of Alberta, Volume 1". Calgary: University of Calgary Press, pg. 240]

Tributaries

*Kitchener Creek
*Tangle Creek
*Woolley Creek
*Beauty Creek
*Diadem Creek
*Grizzly Creek
*Jonas Creek
*Poboktan Creek
*Buck Lake

References

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