The Cross River is a tributary

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

 of the Kootenay River

Kootenay River

The Kootenay is a major river in southeastern British Columbia, Canada and the northern part of the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...

 in the Canadian province

Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...

 of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. It is part of the Columbia River

Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

 basin, as the Kootenay River is tributary to the Columbia River.

The river's name comes from a translation of an indigenous Nakoda

Nakoda (people)

The Nakoda are a First Nation group, indigenous to both Canada and, originally, the United States....

 ("Stoney") name, Tsha-kooap-te-ha-wap-ta, which alludes to a cross that had been erected near the river by Pierre-Jean De Smet

Pierre-Jean De Smet

Pierre-Jean De Smet , also known as Pieter-Jan De Smet, was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus , active in missionary work among the Native Americans of the Midwestern United States in the mid-19th century.His extensive travels as a missionary were said to total...

 in 1845.

Course

The Cross River originates in Kootenay National Park

Kootenay National Park

Kootenay National Park is located in southeastern British Columbia Canada covering in the Canadian Rockies and forms part of a World Heritage Site. The park ranges in elevation from at the south-west park entrance to at Deltaform Mountain...

 on the west slopes of the Continental Divide

Continental Divide

The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...

near White Man Pass. It flows generally south and west, picking up the waters of Mitchell River from the north, before emptying into the Kootenay River.