Kamloops Lake in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada is situated on the

Thompson River The Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. The Thompson River has two main branches, the South Thompson River and the North Thompson River. The river ...

just west of

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

. The lake is 1.6 km wide, 29 km long, and up to 152 m deep. In prehistoric time, the lake was much longer, perhaps 20x, with adjacent silt cliffs defining ancient lake bottoms 100 meters higher than present water levels. At the outlet near Savona, a large tumbled rock, gravel moraine indicates the toe of a glacier once melted away here. The community of

Savona Savona (; lij, Sann-a ) is a seaport and ''comune'' in the west part of the northern Italy, Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. Savona used to be one of the chie ...

is located at the west end of the lake, near the Thompson River outlet. The city of

is located a few miles east of the head of the lake, at the confluence of the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Thompson River The South Thompson River is the southern branch of the Thompson River, the largest tributary of the Fraser River, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It originates at the outlet of Little Shuswap Lake at the town of Chase and flows appro ...

s. The name, Kamloops, derives from a local Indigenous word, Tk’emlúps, meaning a meeting of waters. ThompsonRiverBritishColumbia Location

The lake is bounded on all sides by steep hillsides, with level areas found only near creek deltas and around the inlet. On these hills, fresh, green grass feeds herds of Mule Deer and Rocky Mountain Sheep in the Spring. The Canadian National Railroad runs along the North shore, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad along the South shore. The surrounding land is mostly dedicated to Beef cattle ranching. It is classified as dry belt interior grasslands, Semi-arid desert, as it is in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountain Range, averaging only 10 inches of total precipitation a year. Vegetation is mostly

bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

and

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

, with pockets of

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

Ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

and

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

. Kamloops Lake is a widening and deepening of the Thompson River, which enters at the east end and exits at the west end. The limnology of the lake is controlled by the Thompson River, which has high fluctuations in annual flow, with over 60% occurring in the early summer during

freshet The term ''freshet'' is most commonly used to describe a spring thaw resulting from snow and ice melt in rivers located in upper North America. A spring freshet can sometimes last several weeks on large river systems, resulting in significant in ...

(May to July). Lake levels rise naturally, as much as , on average, from winter lows till late June. Infrequent flood years have brought it up another 5 to 10 feet (2 - 4 m). Consequently, rare sandy beach areas expand by as much as in the summer as lake levels recede in July and August. Bulk residence times (the time it takes for the water in the lake to be replaced with new water), are very short, ranging from 20 days to 340 days, with a mean of 60 days. Because Kamloops Lake is fed by both the North and South Thompson rivers (the South Thompson drains from the very warm Shuswap Lakes, 230 meters deep), Kamloops Lake is relatively warm. It rarely freezes over in Winter. Since the late twentieth century, it has become an increasingly popular boating and recreational area. On the north side of the lake is Fredrick, and on the south side of the lake is Savona, and rural residential areas such as Cherry Creek and the Tobiano resort community. At the East end of the lake are the remains of Tranquille, a Tuberculosis Sanitorium, built in 1907 & finally closed in 1983; limited day use only access to the lakeshore exists here. A boat launch, trestle and gas dock have been built at Tobiano; it is the only location on Kamloops Lake with these facilities. Steelhead Provincial Park is a campsite in Savona, on the far western shore of the lake. Both Savona and Kamloops also have boat launches, but their use is dependant on water levels.

Physical dimensions

*Water level: Unregulated *Normal range of annual water level fluctuation: 5 m *Surface Elevation: 335 m

External link

* {{authority control Lakes of British Columbia Thompson Country Kamloops Kamloops Division Yale Land District

Physical dimensions

See also

External link