Largest lakes & reservoirs in US West Region by water volume
The estimated volume of water that a lake contains is measured at the lake’s normal elevation. By this measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is Siberia’s Lake Baikal.Water Volume can be measured in acre-feet, in cubic miles, or in cubic kilometers. One acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot. One cubic mile equals 3,379,200 acre-feet. One cubic kilometer equals 810,713 acre-feet. 1 acre-foot is equal to 325,851 US gallons. Siberia’s Lake Baikal contains about 6,276,367,740,000,000 gallons of freshwater – nearly 1 million gallons for every living person on earth.
The other – and more widely used – measure of a lake’s size is the lake’s surface acreage. By that measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is North America’s Lake Superior.
Note: In the United States, an acre foot is a unit of volume used to refer to large-scale bodies of water. It is defined by the volume of water needed to cover 1 acre of surface area to a depth of 1 foot.
You can find many of the the world’s largest lakes (by water volume) on LakeLubbers. Note: For some lakes, the water volume data is unknown or does not apply, so you may see fewer lakes than the total 329 articles we have published for US West Region lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US West Region > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in US West Region, only the 329 US West Region lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Tahoe, CA/NV (California, High Sierra Region, CA, Nevada, Renoe-Tahoe Territory, NV, US West Region, USA) |
122,160,280 ac-ft | 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 Stat … |
| Lake Pend Oreille, ID (Idaho, Northern Idaho, US West Region, USA) |
43,939,940 ac-ft | (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, … |
| Lake Mead, AZ/NV (Arizona, Las Vegas Territory, NV, Nevada, US Southwest Region, US West Region, USA, West Coast Region, AZ) |
28,537,000 ac-ft | 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, L … |
| Great Salt Lake, UT (Great Salt Lake Country, UT, Ogden & Northwest Region, UT, US West Region, USA, Utah) |
28,000,000 ac-ft | (Also known as America's Dead Sea) Sometimes called “America’s Dead Sea,” the Great Salt Lake occupies approximately 1,700 square miles of Utah’s real estate. It is the second largest l … |
| Lake Powell, AZ/UT (Arizona, Canyonlands Region, UT, Color Country, UT, North Central Arizona, US Southwest Region, US West Region, USA, Utah) |
27,000,000 ac-ft | 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 U … |
| Pyramid Lake, NV (Nevada, Renoe-Tahoe Territory, NV, US West Region, USA) |
23,660,000 ac-ft | Pyramid Lake is a true natural wonder located in the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Reservation in western Nevada. Covering 117,400 acres, it is the third … |
| Fort Peck Lake, MT (Missouri River Country, MT, Montana, US West Region, USA) |
18,700,000 ac-ft | Fort Peck Lake, located 20 miles southeast of Glasgow, Montana on Montana Highway 24, is the 5th-largest man-made reservoir by volume in the United St … |
| Crater Lake, OR (Oregon, Southern Oregon, US West Region, USA) |
14,100,000 ac-ft | 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 Pa … |
| Yellowstone Lake, WY (Northwest Wyoming, US West Region, USA, Wyoming) |
12,095,264 ac-ft | Yellowstone Lake is located in the southeast corner of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The Park was established in 1872, making it the first natio … |
| Lake Roosevelt, WA (Northeast Washington, US West Region, USA, Washington) |
9,402,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Lake Franklin D. Roosevelt) Lake Roosevelt, located approximately 90 miles northwest of Spokane, Washington, covers 82,000 acres with a shoreline of 630 miles. Lake Roosevelt, al … |
| Salton Sea, CA (California, Desert Region, CA, US West Region, USA) |
7,500,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Salton Lake) Salton Sea, sometimes called Salton Lake, is an inland saline lake located in southern California along the Mexican border. Though hard to believe, th … |
| Lake Koocanusa, MT / Canada (British Columbia, Canada, Canada, Glacier Country, MT, Montana, US West Region, USA) |
5,850,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Koocanusa Lake, Koocanusa Reservoir) In the far north of the United States, tucked into the northwestern end of Montana, is the long, narrow Lake Koocanusa. This lake is actually a man-ma … |