Geography of Prince George: rivers, plateau and forest

If you look at a map of British Columbia, Prince George sits almost exactly in the middle: roughly 780 km by road north of Vancouver and close to the geographic centre of the province, at about 53.9° N, 122.7° W. Its geography explains much of its history. Two major rivers meet here, forest stretches in every direction, and the land is flat enough to run railways and highways through.

The confluence

The Fraser River

The Fraser is British Columbia’s longest river, running about 1,375 km from Fraser Pass in the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia. It drains roughly 220,000 km², about a quarter of the province. Upstream of Prince George it flows northwest through the Robson Valley and the Rocky Mountain Trench, then makes a sharp bend near the Giscome Portage and turns south. At Prince George it picks up the Nechako and heads for the Pacific, eventually carving the Fraser Canyon far downstream.

The Nechako River

The Nechako rises on the plateau east of the Coast Mountains and flows north and east past Vanderhoof to join the Fraser here. Its name comes from Carrier words meaning “big river.” Since the Kenney Dam was completed in 1952, much of its upper flow has been diverted west through the mountains to generate power for aluminum smelting at Kitimat, which reduced flows and has affected salmon and sturgeon. Major tributaries include the Stuart River and the Chilako River, which enters about 15 km west of the city.

Living with the rivers

The rivers have shaped the city in many ways:

• Flooding. The spring freshet usually peaks in late spring. Low areas near the confluence, including Cottonwood Island Park, have flooded in high-water years and during winter ice jams.
• Ice jams. In December 2007 an ice jam on the Nechako grew to many kilometres long, flooding low-lying industrial and residential areas and prompting a state of emergency.
• Drinking water. The city’s water comes from wells drilled into gravel aquifers beside the rivers.

Live water levels and flows are on our rivers dashboard.

The plateau and the bowl

Prince George is built on the Nechako Plateau, the northern part of British Columbia’s Interior Plateau, a gently rolling upland of old volcanic and sedimentary rock smoothed by ice. The rivers have cut a broad valley, the bowl, into it. Most of the older city lies on the valley floor, while newer neighbourhoods have climbed onto the benches and plateau around it.

Place	Approximate elevation
Downtown and the bowl	575 m
Prince George Airport (YXS)	691 m
Tabor Mountain ski area, top	1,040 m

To understand how the bowl and cutbanks formed, read Glacial Lake Prince George.

Hills and mountains around the city

• Cranbrook Hill rises on the west side and is home to UNBC and the Forests for the World trail network.
• Tabor Mountain, about 20 km east along Highway 16, hosts a small ski area with 255 m of vertical.
• The Rocky Mountains line the northeastern horizon, beyond the Rocky Mountain Trench.
• The Cariboo Mountains begin to the southeast and rise toward Barkerville and the Bowron Lakes.

From the Forests for the World lookout you can see much of this at once.

Forest

Prince George lies in the sub-boreal spruce forest, a mixed northern forest suited to cold winters and warm, short summers. Common trees include:

• Hybrid white spruce and subalpine fir, the classic dark conifers of the region.
• Lodgepole pine on drier, sandier ground. Huge areas were killed by the mountain pine beetle in the 2000s.
• Douglas-fir on warmer slopes, here near the northern limit of its interior range.
• Trembling aspen, paper birch and black cottonwood, which turn the hillsides gold in late September.

The forest is why Prince George became a sawmill and pulp town. It also provides wild edibles including blueberries, saskatoons, raspberries, cranberries and morel mushrooms. East of the city the forest changes dramatically: the wet valleys toward McBride hold the inland temperate rainforest, home to thousand-year-old western redcedars at Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut.

Wildlife is part of daily life. Moose, black bears, deer, beavers and bald eagles are regularly seen on the city’s edges and in its greenbelts.

Lakes and the Arctic divide

The land around Prince George is dotted with lakes, many within a 30- to 60-minute drive:

• West Lake, about 22 km southwest, with a day-use provincial park.
• Tabor Lake, just east of the city near Tabor Mountain.
• Ness Lake, about 35 km northwest, with a regional park and beach.
• Purden Lake, about 64 km east on Highway 16, with a provincial campground.
• Summit Lake, north on Highway 97, sits on the height of land between the Fraser and the Arctic-bound Peace and Mackenzie river systems. The Giscome Portage trail crosses this divide.

See summer and lakes for swimming, paddling and fishing ideas.

Climate in brief

Being inland, at elevation and far north means cold winters and warm summers. The January daily mean at the airport is about −7.8°C and the July mean about 15.9°C. The full picture is in our climate guide and live conditions are on the weather dashboard. In summer, also keep an eye on the wildfire dashboard.