28 Facts About Snake River

Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States.

The Snake River Plain was created by a volcanic hotspot which now lies underneath the Snake River headwaters in Yellowstone National Park.

The removal of several dams on the lower Snake River has been proposed in order to restore some of the river's once-tremendous salmon runs.

The Portneuf River Valley is an overflow channel that in the last glacial period carried floodwaters from pluvial Lake Bonneville into the Snake River, significantly altering the landscape of the Snake River Plain through massive erosion.

North of Boise, the Snake enters Hells Canyon, a steep, spectacular, rapid-strewn gorge that cuts through the Salmon River Mountains and Blue Mountains of Idaho and Oregon.

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At the halfway point in Hells Canyon, in one of the most remote and inaccessible sections of its course, the Snake River is joined from the east by its largest tributary, the Salmon River.

Snake River is the thirteenth longest river in the United States.

Mostly semi-arid, even desert climate of the Snake River watershed on average, receives less than 12 inches of precipitation per year.

The Snake River watershed includes parts of Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, and many other national and state parks.

Snake River watershed is bounded by several other major North American watersheds, which drain both to the Atlantic or the Pacific, or into endorheic basins.

Rest of the Snake River watershed borders on several other major Columbia River tributaries - mostly the Spokane River to the north, but Clark Fork in Montana to the northeast and the John Day River to the west.

Mountain ranges in the Snake watershed include the Teton Range, Bitterroot Range, Clearwater Mountains, Seven Devils Mountains, and the extreme northwestern end of the Wind River Range.

Pollutant levels in Hells Canyon upstream of the Salmon Snake River confluence, including that of water temperature, dissolved nutrients, and sediment, are required to meet certain levels.

The highest flow ever recorded on the Snake River was at a different USGS stream gauge near Clarkston, which operated from 1915 to 1972.

Snake River's flow is measured at several other points in its course.

Later American explorers, some of whom were originally part of the Lewis and Clark expedition, journeyed into the Snake River watershed and records show a variety of names have been associated with the river.

Some emigrants chose to ford the Snake and proceed down the west side and recross the river near Fort Boise into Hells Canyon, continue down the drier east side into the gorge, or float the Snake and Columbia to the Willamette River, the destination of the Oregon Trail.

Snake River's writes that this particular route was controlled by Mormons who had "built bridges where they were not needed-most unmercifully fleecing the poor emigrants".

Downriver of Hells Canyon is the Lower Snake River Project, authorized by the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1945 for the U S Army Corps of Engineers to create a navigable channel on the Snake River from its mouth to the beginning of Hells Canyon.

The Snake River has fifteen dams and is extremely difficult for salmon to access because of hydroelectric dams.

World Wide Fund for Nature divides the Snake River's watershed into two freshwater ecoregions: the "Columbia Unglaciated" ecoregion and the "Upper Snake" ecoregion.

About 274 bird species, some endangered or threatened, use the Snake River watershed, including bald eagle, peregrine falcon, whooping crane, greater sage-grouse, and yellow-billed cuckoo.

Several species of amphibians are common in the "lost streams" basin and the northeasternmost part of the Snake River watershed, including the inland tailed frog, northern leopard frog, western toad, Columbia spotted frog, long-toed salamander, spadefoot toad.

However, in the lower and middle portions of the Snake River watershed, several native species have been severely impacted by agriculture practices and the resulting non-native species supported by them.

Snake River watershed includes a diversity of vegetation zones both past and present.

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Snake River was once one of the most important rivers for the spawning of anadromous fish—which are hatched in the headwaters of rivers, live in the ocean for most of their lives, and return to the river to spawn—in the United States.

Navigation on the lower Snake River would suffer, as submerged riffles, rapids and islands would be exposed by the removal of the dams.

Snake River has over 20 major tributaries, most of which are in the mountainous regions of the basin.