Kechika River (B.C.)

The Kechika River is a tributary of the Liard River, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) long, in northern British Columbia, Canada. The Kechika flows generally northwest through the northernmost section of the Rocky Mountain Trench before turning east to join the Liard, a major branch of the Mackenzie River system. The river's 22,700 km2 (8,800 mi2) drainage basin is characterized by high glaciated peaks, boreal forest, and open tundra. With no settlements, roads or dams along its course, the Kechika is considered "one of British Columbia's finest examples of wilderness and undisturbed wildlife habitat." Inhabited for thousands of years by the Kaska Dena, the Kechika was explored by fur traders in the 1800s and was one of the routes to gold strikes in the Yukon. The difficulty of accessing the remote Kechika country made it an unappealing location for European settlement. Today, the Kechika River basin includes a number of large parks and protected areas, most of which are administered under the umbrella of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, which includes almost the entire Kechika basin and parts of several adjacent river systems.