What is the Continental Divide of the Americas in Canada?

The Continental Divide of the Americas is the watershed line running through North America that separates rivers flowing west to the Pacific Ocean from rivers flowing east and north to the Atlantic, Arctic, and Hudson Bay drainages. In Canada the Continental Divide runs through the Rocky Mountains from the United States border at Waterton Lakes National Park north to Mount Snow Dome on the Columbia Icefield in Banff and Jasper National Parks, where the Divide branches into Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic drainages.

The Continental Divide forms most of the British Columbia-Alberta border (with the boundary deviating from the strict Divide at Yellowhead Pass and through the Alberta-northwest BC corner). The Divide passes through the high peaks and passes of the Rockies, including Akamina Pass (Waterton Lakes), Crowsnest Pass, Vermilion Pass (Banff-Kootenay border), Bow Pass, Sunwapta Pass (Banff-Jasper border), and Athabasca Pass. The Yellowhead Pass on the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway (Highway 16) and the Canadian National Railway main line at 1,131 metres is the lowest crossing of the Continental Divide.

Mount Snow Dome (3,456 metres) on the Columbia Icefield is a hydrological apex of North America. Meltwater from the mountain flows in three directions: west via the Bush River and the Columbia River system to the Pacific; east via the Athabasca River and the Mackenzie River system to the Arctic Ocean; and southeast via the Saskatchewan River system to Lake Winnipeg, the Nelson River, and Hudson Bay (and ultimately the Atlantic). The Athabasca Glacier feeds the Sunwapta and Athabasca Rivers. The Saskatchewan Glacier feeds the North Saskatchewan River. The Columbia Glacier feeds the Bush River.

The Continental Divide is more than a geographic boundary; it has been an important feature in Canadian Indigenous and settler history. The Stoney Nakoda, Tsuut'ina, Kainai, Piikani, Siksika, Ktunaxa, and Salish nations crossed the Divide on trade and hunting routes for millennia. The Athabasca Pass was the principal Hudson's Bay Company fur-trade route from Edmonton House to Fort Vancouver between 1814 and 1846. David Thompson's 1811 expedition over Athabasca Pass produced the first comprehensive maps of the western Canadian interior. The Banff-Vermilion-Castle Junction section of the Trans-Canada Highway is one of the most-photographed mountain drives in the world. The Continental Divide Trail (a long-distance hiking trail) extends from Mexico to the Canada-US border, with the Great Divide Trail extending the route north from the border to Mount Robson, a 1,200-kilometre route through the Canadian Rockies.