Dean Channel is the upper end of one of the longest inlets of the British Columbia Coast^[1], from its head at the mouth of the Kimsquit River. The Dean River, one of the main rivers of the Coast Mountains and one of the few rivers to pierce that range from the Chilcotin Plateau, enters Dean Channel about below the head of the inlet, at the First Nations community of Kimsquit.

Dean Channel ends at the mouth of Cousins Inlet, which is the harbour for the abandoned pulp mill town of Ocean Falls, the fjord's name changes to Fisher Channel down the west side of King Island. Below Fisher Channel's length the fjord merges with Burke Channel, which is a sidewater of the Dean\Fisher Channel on the east side of King Island, the name of the fjord changes to Fitz Hugh Sound, which is considerably wider than the upper part of the fjord at about in width and is itself about in length. Fitz Hugh Sound passes on the inside of Calvert Island and opens onto Queen Charlotte Sound just northwest of the opening of Queen Charlotte Strait.

Opening onto Fitz Hugh Sound in its lower reaches near Queen Charlotte Sound is Rivers Inlet, home of the Wuikinuxv people (Owekeeno). The total length of the fjord from the head of Dean Channel to the mouth of Fitz Hugh Sound is about rivalling Hardangerfjord in Norway for length. If the additional lengths of South Bentinck Arm () and North Bentinck Arm (), plus Burke Channel and its shorter companion, Labouchere Channel (), and a sidewater of Burke named Kwatna Inlet () were factored in, total length of the fjord complex's waterways is - longer than Sognefjord's and rivalling Greenland's Scoresby Sund's .

A side-inlet of Burke Channel, North Bentinck Arm, is noteworthy as the terminus of the overland expedition by fur trade explorer Alexander Mackenzie, who wrote his name on a rock on its shoreline just a few weeks after Captain George Vancouver visited the inlet, which is the home of the Nuxálk Nation (pron. NOO-hawlk). The town of Bella Coola is at the head of North Bentinck Arm. Bella Coola is the "English" name for the Nuxalk. It is the only community on the coast between Vancouver, British Columbia and Kitimat, British Columbia, to have road access to the rest of the province, via BC Hwy 20 to Williams Lake via the Chilcotin Plateau.

Dean Channel was named by Captain Vancouver in 1793 after Rev. James King of Raphee, Ireland. The channel was surveyed by Captain Richards in 1861 of the HMS Hecate.^[2] It is located within the Central Coast Regional District.

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