It is a tributary of the Beaufort Sea and hence part of the Arctic Ocean drainage basin.

It passes through the Smoking Hills and reaches its mouth on the east side of Cape Bathurst at Franklin Bay on the Amundsen Gulf of the Beaufort Sea, where it forms a small delta, about 125 kilometres (78 mi) northwest of the community of Paulatuk.

The mouth had been 100 kilometres (62 mi) further north at Harrowby Bay on the west side of Cape Bathurst until about 1800 when a meander eroded through.

Originally opened as a Distant Early Warning Line site it closed in 1963.

The site was reopened in 1991 as a North Warning System short range radar.