Another word for river

Everything west of the river was blank.

It was on these byways that Dean opted to travel, rolling along the river with the down of cottonwoods filling the air like a winter snowstorm, past the occasional farm house, fields, and ever-present vista of mountains wrapping around him.

He continued to trudge forward, leaving the river and crowds behind.

Everything west of the river is fine.

I have seen our river, when, the landscape being covered with snow, both water and ice were almost as green as grass.