Clear Lake is a mountain

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

southeast of

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, United States in

Mount Hood National Forest The Mount Hood National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, located east of the city of Portland and the northern Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting fo ...

. It can be seen from flights in the region as a bird-shaped body of water. It is south of

Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...

and northeast of Timothy Lake, near the junction of

U.S. Route 26 U.S. Highway 26 (US 26) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that runs from Seaside, Oregon, to Ogallala, Nebraska. When the U.S. Numbered Highway System was first defined, it was limited to Nebraska and Wyoming; by the 1950s, it c ...

and Skyline Road at the latter's northern terminus. It is near the northwest corner of Wasco County. The

Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

is 4 km (2 mi) west of the lake. It is fed by several small streams of the eastern Cascade crest. It is the headwaters of Clear Creek, a tributary of the White River, blocked at the east end by the Wasco Dam. The earthen dam was a 1959 irrigation project of the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operatio ...

, 59 feet high and 1901 feet long at its crest. Clear Lake Butte is a

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

south of the lake, and defines the northwest corner of

Warm Springs Indian Reservation The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Tribes Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and ...

. The lake is known for abundant fish and its windy conditions. The banks are edged by tree stumps and free range cattle tracks. The campground has 28 established spots and an overflow area.

References

Lakes of Oregon Lakes of Wasco County, Oregon Protected areas of Wasco County, Oregon Mount Hood National Forest {{WascoCountyOR-geo-stub

See also

References