The third largest continent of our beautiful planet Earth - North America - surprises with an alliance of civilization and untouched nature. In the immediate vicinity of densely populated areas, natural conditions have been preserved in their original form: hot deserts, wild coasts, fertile prairies, wild valleys. Here you can see the lakes of North America - the largest and most majestic in the world.
The bounty of nature on the mainland is manifested in everything: trees surprise with unprecedented heights, volcanoes shake with powerful eruptions, geysers fascinate with boiling.
Glacier Legacy
The lakes of North America are mostly located in the north of the mainland. These are lakes of glacial-tectonic origin. In the distant past, giving up its positions, the retreating glacier left on the territory of Canada - the northernmost part of the mainland - tectonic depressions that formed lakes. These lakes include Bolshoye Medvezhye, BolshoyeSlave.
Caught by bears
The fourth largest lake in North America - the Great Bear Lake - resembles an irregular star in shape. Located in the Arctic Circle, the lake on the north side is surrounded by permafrost and tundra. This is the only straight stretch of coastline. On the other three sides, the coast is cut by rocky peninsulas.
Located in harsh climatic conditions, Bear Lake “sleeps” for a significant part of the year under a layer of ice that covers its surface in October. The reservoir becomes ice-free only in June, but the water remains icy throughout the summer season.
Despite the short period of navigation, the lake is a transport artery, taking passenger and cargo ships into its waters. Through the rivers, the lake is connected to other water areas of Central and Northern Canada. On the water surface of the Mackenzie River, connected to the lake by a tributary, you can reach the Arctic Ocean and get into the Great Slave Lake, from where the river originates.
Record holder of the continent
Another lake in Canada's Laurentian Highlands rightfully occupies an honorable place in the register of natural wonders in North America. Great Slave Lake surpasses all brothers of the North American continent in depth, which is 614 meters.
The reservoir got its name in ancient times, when its shores were inhabited by the Indians of the slave tribe. Tribe nameconsonant with the English word slavemeaning a slave. So a name with a distorted meaning came into use.
Like many lakes in North America, Slave Lake is navigable for a brief summer period and is ice-bound for eight months of the year. For many years, moving on hard ice in winter on foot and by car was the only way to communicate between coastal settlements, until an equipped road along the coast appeared.
The nature of the lake shores is very colorful. The once deserted northern shore of the lake is represented by tundra forests, which attracted thousands of gold miners during the gold rush.
The east and south coasts are surrounded by national parks, where endangered forest buffalo can be found on the side of the road.
Rest
National parks, sailing regattas, sandy beaches in summer, ice fun in winter. But Slave Lake is most popular among anglers. A variety of lake inhabitants (trout, pike, whitefish, perch, arctic grayling) in any season, in any weather attracts lovers of quiet hunting.
Mesmerizing beauty
Founded in the crater of an extinct volcano in southern Oregon over 7,000 years ago, Crater Lake is the state's top tourist attraction.
The volcanic past of the lake is clearly demonstrated by two islands in its water area, which are cones of volcanic ash. Over a century agobased on the territory adjacent to the lake, the national park bears the unofficial name of the pumice desert. The surface of the park, devoid of vegetation due to porosity, has retained all traces of the volcanic past.
Magnificent dark blue waters of the most unusual lake in North America, reflecting, like in a huge mirror, the peaks of the surrounding mountains on the surface of the water surface, amaze the imagination from the first moment. The unity of a deep lake, bare surrounding cliffs almost two thousand feet high, two picturesque islands evokes a feeling of special beauty.
The lake has another unusual attraction: in a vertical position, protruding one and a half meters above the surface of the water, a ten-meter tree trunk floats on the lake in a certain direction of movement for more than a hundred years, without undergoing structural changes over time.
