Skagit River
Catchment area of the river
Skagit River at Mount Vernon
The Skagit River ( skædʒɨt ) is a 240 km long river in southwestern British Columbia and northwestern U.S. state of Washington.
Course
The origin of the river is located in the Canadian portion of the Cascade Range, where it rises in Manning Provincial Park. After direction he initially runs parallel to the Crowsnest Highway in the north-west, he turns upon reaching the Skagit Range to the south and flows through the Skagit Valley Provincial Park to open close to the border with the United States in the Ross Lake, the first of three in the framework of the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project reservoirs incurred. The following, smaller reservoirs are Diablo Lake and Gorge Lake. All three reservoirs are located in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area.
Later in the valley widens and reaches in Sedro -Woolley, the coastal plain. In Mount Vernon, the river, which, after leaving the Ross Lake flows mainly to the west, south and ends after 240 kilometers in a delta in the Skagit Bay on Puget Sound turns.
The most important tributaries of the Skagit, drained the river system has a catchment area of 6900 km ² on the western slope of the Cascade Range are
In Canada:
- Sumallo River
- Klesilkwa River
In the United States:
- Cascade River
- Sauk River
- Baker River
Dams
As part of the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project three dams were built to supply mainly the city of Seattle with electricity at the Skagit. The first dam was built in 1924. Was passed the water through the mountains in a power plant in Newhalem. 1961 was built at the same location of the much larger Gorge High Dam. It serves the finer tuning of the water level.
The larger reservoirs formed the next higher-lying dams, especially Diablo and Ross Lake Dam. The reservoir of the Ross Dam, the Ross Lake is 39 km long and extends into Canada.