Red Lake is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

located next to

Navajo, New Mexico Navajo ( nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) on the Navajo Nation in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,097 at the 2000 census. Navajo is the most Navajo town in the United States, with 95.04% of residents h ...

, in the Red Valley in McKinley County, New Mexico, and

Apache County, Arizona Apache County is in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. Shaped in a long rectangle running north to south, as of the 2020 census, its population was 66,021. The county seat is St. Johns. Most of the county is occupied by part ...

. The lake has a surface elevation of . Navajo, New Mexico, lies on the southeast corner of the lake.

Description

Red Lake is a small lake, only long, and only half as wide. It is mostly north–south and is bordered on the east by Reservation Route 12, a north stretch from Window Rock, Arizona to

. Red Lake is located on the eastern border of the long north–south

Defiance Plateau The Defiance Plateau, part of the geologic Defiance Uplift, is an approximately 75-mile (121 km) long, mostly north-trending plateau of Apache County, Arizona, with its east and southeast perimeter, as parts of San Juan and McKinley Counti ...

, where Canyon de Chelly comprises its north, and the Chuska Mountains border to the northeast. Only the western fourth of the lake is in Arizona, and Red Lake is on the southwest foothills of the Chuska's with the beginning of Black Creek and other creeks and washes as inflows to the lake. From Red Lake, Black Creek flows due south on the central and southeast border of the Defiance Plateau. The north–south stretch of Black Creek, in Arizona, parallels the western border of New Mexico. Black Creek then turns southwest to meet the

Puerco River The Puerco River or Rio Puerco is a tributary of the Little Colorado River in northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona. It flows through arid terrain, including the Painted Desert. Name The Puerco River is sometimes called Rio Puerco ...

, just southeast of Houck, southwest of Allentown, both on Interstate 40. The interstate follows the north side of the Puerco River in this stretch.

External links

* * Lakes of New Mexico Lakes of Arizona Bodies of water of McKinley County, New Mexico Lakes of Apache County, Arizona Geography of the Navajo Nation {{NewMexico-geo-stub