The Five Great Lakes make up most of the United States-Canada border in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. Lake Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior are the Five Great Lakes. Lake Superior, the largest of the lakes, has approximately 1,250 miles of shoreline and is the largest freshwater lake in the world in terms of surface area. The St. Lawrence River separates the northern region of New York from Canada. Other bodies of water at the United States-Canada border are Lake St. Clair, Detroit River and Niagara River. In the western United States, the Juan De Fuca Strait flows between British Columbia, Canada, and Washington State.
Much of the western continental United States-Canada border is made up of two mountain ranges, the Rockies and Cascade Range. In the United States, the Rockies are in western Montana and northern Idaho; this mountain range extends into the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. The Rockies are known as the "Canadian Rockies" in Canada. The Cascade Range runs from Northern California to southern British Columbia. The St. Elias Mountains in eastern Alaska straddles the United States-Canada border; the range's highest peak, Mount St. Elias, is on the border. The eastern United States features the Appalachian Mountains, which enters the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Novia Scotia through Maine.
The Great Plains of the United States makes up the United States-Canada border in North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota and eastern Montana. In Canada, the Great Plains make up most of the southern regions of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In Montana, the Great Plains begin at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains to North Dakota, while Minnesota's prairie region stretches from North Dakota to Lake of the Woods. North Dakota is the only state where the Great Plains is the only geographical feature at the border; the North Dakota border is 310 miles.
Popular tourist attractions are at the United States-Canada border. In western New York, the Niagara Falls area features two of the world's largest waterfalls, American Falls and Horseshoe Falls, on the Niagara River; the cities of Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, surround the Falls. Northern New York and southern Ontario are home to the Thousand Islands region, an archipelago of islands in the St. Lawrence River. Glacier National Park in western Montana allows tourists to see natural glaciers within minutes of the Canadian border.
