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You can see the fire from the Rice Ridge Fire that is down by a like further south and slightly east of here. Flathead Lake (Salish: člq̓etkʷ) is the largest natural freshwater lake by surface area that is west of the Mississippi River in the contiguous United States, if one takes Red Lake and Lake of the Woods to be north of the Mississippi River, rather than west of the river.
With a surface area of between 191.5 sq mi and 197 sq mi, Flathead Lake is slightly larger in surface area than Lake Tahoe, but it is much smaller in volume.
The lake is a remnant of the ancient, massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula of the era of the last interglacial. Flathead Lake is 27.3 mi long and up to 15.5 mi wide. Flathead Lake has a maximum depth of 370.7 ft, and an average of 164.7 ft. This makes Flathead Lake deeper than the average depths of the Yellow Sea or the Persian Gulf. Polson Bay, at the lake's outlet, was raised 10 ft by Kerr Dam. It is one of the cleanest lakes in the populated world for its size and type.
With a surface area of between 191.5 sq mi and 197 sq mi, Flathead Lake is slightly larger in surface area than Lake Tahoe, but it is much smaller in volume.
The lake is a remnant of the ancient, massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula of the era of the last interglacial. Flathead Lake is 27.3 mi long and up to 15.5 mi wide. Flathead Lake has a maximum depth of 370.7 ft, and an average of 164.7 ft. This makes Flathead Lake deeper than the average depths of the Yellow Sea or the Persian Gulf. Polson Bay, at the lake's outlet, was raised 10 ft by Kerr Dam. It is one of the cleanest lakes in the populated world for its size and type.