The Canoe River begins in the Cariboo Mountains, west of Valemount, British Columbia, and flows east to the vicinity of Valemount, then southeast to join the Columbia River at the "Big Bend" of the Columbia, just upriver from Mica Dam.

The reservoir created by Mica Dam, Kinbasket Lake, extends up the Canoe River nearly to Valemount.

This impounded portion of the river is called the Canoe Reach of Kinbasket Lake.

[2] From the early 1820s until 1846, the Canoe River was a well-travelled section of the York Factory Express HBC overland trade route between London via Hudson Bay and the lucrative Columbia District fur region headquartered at Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the lower Columbia River.

The river was the site of a rail crash, near Valemount, British Columbia, in 1950.52°47′N 119°10′W / 52.783°N 119.167°W / 52.783; -119.167