Manitoba Geography

Manitoba

Known by sportsmen as the "Province of Lakes," Manitoba is mostly flat land, with some hills and small mountains southwest.

The Canadian Shield covers about half of Manitoba, a generally level landscape of plains and plateaus, covered by large areas of coniferous (evergreen) forests, all crisscrossed by rivers and many large lakes.

That Canadian Shield slopes gently to the northeast, where it flattens out into the Hudson Bay area, land covered by very thin soil, widely scattered forests and frozen tundra.

Manitoba's southwestern mountains include the Duck, Pembina and Porcupine ranges. The Duck Mountains include Manitoba's highest point, Baldy Mountain, 831 m (2,727 ft.)

Manitoba is blanketed by rivers and hundreds of lakes, especially central and south. At 24,514 sq km (9,465 sq mi) Lake Winnipeg is the fifth-largest lake in Canada, larger in fact than Lake Ontario of Great Lakes fame. Additional lakes of size include Cedar, Manitoba, Nueltin, Southern Indian and Winnipegosis.

Significant rivers included the Assiniboine, Bloodvein, Churchill, Gods, Nelson, Poplar, Red, Souris and Wolverine. The entire Lake Winnipeg watershed drains northeast into the Nelson River, and on into Hudson Bay.