Thompson Plateau
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The Thompson Plateau is the southernmost portion of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada, lying between Okanagan Lake and the Thompson River. Its southwestern edge abuts the Canadian Cascades portion of the Cascade Range, more or less following the line of the Similkameen River, its tributary the Tulameen River, and a series of passes from the area of Tulameen, British Columbia to the confluence of the Thompson River with the Nicoamen River, a few miles east of Lytton, British Columbia. Its northeastern edge runs approximately from the city of Vernon, British Columbia through the valley of Monte Creek to the junction of the same name just east of the city of Kamloops. Northeast of that line is the Shuswap Highland.
Some definitions include the Bonaparte Plateau, which lies in the angle of the Thompson and Bonaparte Rivers, and south of the uppermost reaches of that river and a small tributary of the North Thompson, Lemieux Creek.
The dominant landscape of the Thompson Plateau is a high, almost plains-like rangeland fairly heavily forested with subalpine forest and tamarack swamp, plunging steeply to the valleys of the Thompson and Okanagan on its outer perimeter. In its core is the broad and open rangeland of the Nicola Valley, at the focus of which is the town of Merritt, British Columbia. Towards its southern edges, the plateau is fairly mountainous and includes the ski area at Apex, British Columbia, as well as the small but rugged Okanagan Range which runs south from there to the confluence of the Similkameen and Okanagan Rivers.
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