Crater Lake

(Oregon, USA) 1,943 Crater Lake is on the crest of the Cascade Range in southern Oregon, about 100 miles from the ocean, and is the centerpiece of Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake's gorgeous deep blue water highlights its amazing depth of 1943 feet - the deepest lake in the United States and seventh deepest freshwater ...

Lake Tahoe

(California, USA / Nevada, USA) 1,645 Tucked into the Sierra Nevada Mountains and straddling the California-Nevada state line, Lake Tahoe is one of the most famous lakes in the United States. It's the second deepest lake in the country (only Crater Lake in Oregon is deeper), and was home to the area's 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics. ...

Lake Chelan

(Washington, USA) 1,486 From the Salish Indian word for "deep notch", Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the United States with a maximum depth of almost 1500 feet. Lake Chelan is long and narrow, stretching more than 50 miles in length with an average width of one mile. This north-central Washington lake nestled within ...

Lake Superior

(Ontario, Canada / Great Lakes / Michigan, USA / Minnesota, USA / Wisconsin, USA) 1,332 Skipping over state and country borders, Lake Superior, the largest, deepest, coldest, cleanest, least developed, and most pristine of the Great Lakes, reigns as the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. By volume, this 31,820 square mile colossus ranks fourth - a whopping 2,900 cubic ...

Lake Pend Oreille

(Idaho, USA) 1,152 Also known as: Albeni Falls Dam

Set in a valley carved by glaciers from Canada, Lake Pend Oreille (pond-a-RAY) is surrounded by mountains with altitudes exceeding 6,000 feet. Its 85,960 surface acres - 148 square miles - plunge to depths reaching 1,152 feet, making it one of the largest and deepest natural lakes in the western United ...

Lake Clark

(Alaska, USA) 1,056 Lake Clark is located about 150 miles southwest of Anchorage in southern Alaska. The lake spans 128 square miles, making it the seventh* largest freshwater lake in the state. The lake is part of the 4 million acre Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. This park is often referred to as the "essence ...

Tustumena Lake

(Alaska, USA) 950 Alaska has 17,243 square miles of inland water including both lakes and rivers. The area of inland water is greater than the land mass of Massachusetts and Vermont combined. At 73,437 acres* Tustumena Lake near Kasilof is Alaska's eighth largest lake and the largest lake on the Kenai Peninsula. ...

Lake Michigan

(Great Lakes / Illinois, USA / Indiana, USA / Michigan, USA / Wisconsin, USA) 923 As the only Great Lake nestled completely within the boundaries of the United States, Lake Michigan is the pride and joy of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. The lake boasts a huge area of 22,400 square miles, making it the largest freshwater lake (by surface area) in the world to be contained ...

Lake Michigan-Huron

(Ontario, Canada / Great Lakes / Illinois, USA / Indiana, USA / Michigan, USA / Wisconsin, USA) 923 Lake Michigan and Lake Huron - two of North America's Great Lakes - are contiguous and they share the same elevation of 577 feet above sea level. They are connected by the five-mile-wide Straits of Mackinac. Hydrologically, this makes these "two lakes" a single lake. Some hydrologists designate the ...

Iliamna Lake

(Alaska, USA) 900 Also known as: Lake Iliamna

Iliamna Lake, also known as Lake Iliamna, is the largest lake in Alaska and the second largest freshwater lake contained wholly within the United States (after Lake Michigan). This glacial lake in southwest Alaska is often referred to as an inland sea, stretching out about 80 miles long, 25 miles wide, ...

Lake Ontario

(Ontario, Canada / Great Lakes / New York, USA) 802 Lake Ontario, one of the world's five Great Lakes, weaves over state and country borders, delighting Americans, Canadians, and visiting tourists with its deep, clear, clean waters. Proudly home to a staggering 4,700,000 acres (7,340 square miles), Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes, the ...

Katmai Crater Lake

(Alaska, USA) 800 Little known and seldom seen, Katmai Crater Lake is an example of nature's handiwork at its most impressive. Located on the Alaskan Peninsula within Katmai Park and Wilderness, the crater lake is young by geological standards: The caldera was created as a result of the eruption of lava from Novarupta ...

Lake Huron

(Ontario, Canada / Great Lakes / Michigan, USA) 750 A glacial lake of epic proportions, Lake Huron is the second largest of the five Great Lakes by surface area, boasting 23,010 square miles and an incredible 3,825-mile shoreline. The massive lake is the third largest of the Great Lakes by water volume, containing 850 cubic miles of fresh water within ...

Lake Oroville

(California, USA) 695 Also known as: Oroville Reservoir

Lake Oroville, snuggled into the Sierra Nevada Foothills about 75 miles north of Sacramento, is one of northern California's favorite playgrounds. Boasting the tallest earthen dam in the United States -- 770 feet -- the reservoir was built by the California Department of Water Resources on the Feather ...

Dworshak Reservoir

(Idaho, USA) 650 Dworshak Reservoir is an excellent outdoor recreation site with a great water playground of over 19,000 acres. Located in northern Idaho near the town of Orofino, it extends into the Bitterroot Mountains for beautiful scenic vistas. While log handling facilities exist today, Dworshak Reservoir is primarily ...

Lake Crescent

(Washington, USA) 624 Also known as: Crescent Lake

Lake Crescent is a majestic glacial lake located at the northern tip of the Olympic National Forest in Clallam County, Washington. Glaciers during the last ice age carved a deep valley in the Olympic Mountains through which Indian Creek flowed. A massive landslide about 8,000 years ago dammed the creek, ...

Finger Lakes

(New York, USA) 618 The Finger Lakes Region of New York is one of the nation's favorite recreation and vacation destinations. The series of eleven long, narrow lakes are the result of ancient small lakes and stream valleys re-carved by the last glacier to cover the area. Lying north to south, these unique parallel lakes ...

Seneca Lake

(New York, USA) 618 Seneca Lake, one of western New York's famous Finger Lakes, is the largest lake to be entirely contained within the borders of the state. Seneca Lake stretches out over a vast 43,343 acres and 38 long miles, with Watkins Glen on the south shore and Geneva on the north shore. With a maximum depth of ...

Fremont Lake

(Wyoming, USA) 607 Also known as: The Deep, Stewart Lake (historical)

One of the best-kept secret lake destinations in Northwestern Wyoming is spectacular Fremont Lake. Formed by nature when glaciers gouged out a deep trench along the western slope of the Wind River Mountain Range, the lake was dammed by glacial deposits far back in pre-history. A full eleven miles long ...

Becharof Lake

(Alaska, USA) 600 Becharof Lake, the second* largest lake in Alaska, is located on the Alaskan Peninsula. Stretching an incredible 290,000 acres, the lake measures 35 miles long and 15 miles wide and reaches depths of as much as 600 feet. Deep in the remote Alaskan wilderness, Becharof Lake offers its visitors an unforgettable ...

Lake Mead

(Arizona, USA / Nevada, USA) 589 Lake Mead is the USA's largest man-made reservoir in amount of water it can hold. Although Lake Powell is marginally larger in acreage at full-pond, Lake Mead holds more water by volume and thus is considered the larger of the two. In the size of their surfaces, both are dwarfed by Lake Sakakawea and ...

New Melones Lake

(California, USA) 565 Also known as: New Melones Reservoir

Gently placed into the central Sierra Nevada Mountains near Sonora in Calaveras County, New Melones Lake holds the title of fourth largest reservoir by volume in California. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the New Melones Dam and powerhouse between 1966 and 1979 for flood control on the ...

Lake Powell

(Arizona, USA / Utah, USA) 560 Lake Powell is located in one of Southern Utah's most picturesque red-rock desert areas and in Arizona's Navajo Indian Reservation. It is one of the USA's most scenic reservoirs. At "full pond" (normal water level) it is the second-largest man-made reservoir in the USA by volume - but drought can reduce ...

Kenai Lake

(Alaska, USA) 541 One of the largest glacial lakes in the Kenai River System, Kenai Lake is a beautiful lake in a road-accessible area of Alaska. The backdrop of the majestic Kenai Mountains and its proximity to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge make Kenai Lake a great wilderness getaway. Boomerang shaped Kenai ...