Understand
The East Kootenay valley is generally wider, drier and has greater extremes of temperatures than the West Kootenays, with which it is often compared. The valley is only a few hours drive from Calgary and other points in southern Alberta, and many people from those areas own property and/or visit during the summer for boating, fishing and golf and in the winter for skiing.
From Canal Flats, about 30 minutes north of Cranbrook, the Kootenay River enters the valley from the Rockies and flows south; the Columbia River starts its journey north from its headwaters in Columbia Lake.
Early in the 1900s, there was a plan to join the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers at Canal Flats, how that community got its name. Perhaps fortunately, that project did not succeed. Traces of the attempted canal are still visible.
