River
Liard River
1,115 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into Mackenzie River10th longest in Canada
In numbers
Length
1,115km
Average flow
2,400m³/s
Basin
276,000km²
Drop
1,003m
from 1,109 m to 106 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,115 km of river and 17 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,109 m
- 194 kmFrances Rivertributary
- 205 kmRancheria Rivertributary
- 261 kmDease Rivertributary
- 283 kmHyland Rivertributary
- 292 kmMoffatt Lake0.4 km²
- 387 kmKechika Rivertributary
- 426 kmSmith Rivertributary
- 457 kmTrout Rivertributary
- 487 kmNordquist Lake0.9 km²
- 529 kmGrayling Rivertributary
- 537 kmToad Rivertributary
- 601 kmBeaver Rivertributary
- 643 kmFort Nelson Rivertributary
- 684 kmLa Biche Rivertributary
- 716 kmKotaneelee Rivertributary
- 728 kmPetitot Rivertributary
- 854 kmSouth Nahanni Rivertributary
- 1,115 kmMackenzie Riverat 106 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Left tributary of the Mackenzie River in Canada
At the mouth it carries 2,434 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.0 seconds. It drops from 1,109 m to 106 m, 0.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 276,000 km², about the size of BF. 8,568 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from May to August; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Fort SimpsonLargest city on its banks · 1,100 people
- Fort Simpson Airport (YFS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 13 km from the cityCar hire at YYE airport (Fort Nelson)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe80 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Liard River, month by month
Highest water: from May to August
Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 640 m³/s in the lowest month to 7,000 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Liard River: the basin in numbers
275,686 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 8,568people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 973maverage altitude of the basin
- 476mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -3.9°Caverage air temperature
- 18%protected areas
- 1.0%covered by lakes
- 33%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 54% Forest
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Liard River: what you find on the way
- 80RapidsTwomile Rapids, Cranberry Rapids, Mountain Portage Rapids and 77 more
- 1Boat ramps
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Liard River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Moffatt Lakekm 3200.4km²
- Nordquist Lakekm 5330.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mount Johnson11 km away
- Mount Lewis5.4 km away
- Mount Placid6.1 km away
- Mount Vermilion13 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Liard River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Mackenzie RiverCanada1,738 km10,700 m³/sTributaries (19)
Also: Coal River, Petitot River, Fort Nelson River, Dease River, Kechika River, Frances River, Toad River, Beaver River, Rancheria River, Smith River, Kotaneelee River, Grayling River, Trout River, Hyland River, La Biche River, Dunedin River, Blackstone River, Muskeg River
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2249) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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