The Kechika River is a tributary of the Liard River, about 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 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. Geography The Kechika River begins more than above sea level in the Sifton Ranges about south of Mount Slocomb. It flows north to the Rocky Mountain Trench at Sifton Pass, which marks the divide between the drainage basins of the Kechika and the Fox River, which flows southeast along the Trench into the Finlay River. The Kechika turns northwest down the Rocky Mountain Trench and flows through Dune Za Keyih Provincial Park and Protected Area, where it receives the Frog River from the west and the Gataga River from the east. Further downstream, it receives its largest tributary, the Turnagain River, from the west, then the Red River also from the west. After the Red River confluence the Kechika turns to the northeast and flows into the Liard River near the unincorporated community of Fireside, about southeast of Watson Lake, Yukon and northwest of Fort Nelson, BC. The Kechika drainage basin includes about in BC's Stikine Region and Northern Rockies Regional Municipality. The main Kechika River valley sits between the Muskwa Ranges (part of the northern Rocky Mountains) to the east, and the Sifton, Thudaka and Kechika Ranges (all part of the greater Cassiar Mountains) to the west. The Cassiar Mountains in this area are higher than the Rockies and are extensively glaciated. The Turnagain River drains an area west of the Kechika Ranges, stretching as