Pacific Northwest Fine Art Print Map

The Pacific Northwest can be briefly described as the region drained by the Columbia/Snake River system. There is no universal agreement about how far beyond that core area the term is appropriate. Political divisions pull the definition one way, physical geography another.

The Columbia rises in Canada, and so does the Fraser, whose delta occupies the northern end of Washington’s Puget Sound country. The two rivers follow the same notable pattern, flowing northwest along the Rocky Mountain Trench before swinging abruptly south. (The trench continues unbroken from Idaho to Alaska, the expression of long-term tectonic shifts affecting the entire region).

This map extends up to the headwaters of the Columbia above Banff, east to the Continental Divide, south into northern Nevada for the southern tributaries of the Snake, and into California for the southernmost Cascades. Included on the map: all of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, as well as a small portion of northern California, with lots of British Columbia, Alberta, and Montana.