Lake Lenore (Washington)

"Lenore Lake" redirects here. For the lake in Saskatchewan, see Lenore Lake (Saskatchewan).
Lenore Lake
Location Grant County, Washington
Coordinates 47°30′07″N 119°30′43″W / 47.5020°N 119.5120°W / 47.5020; -119.5120Coordinates: 47°30′07″N 119°30′43″W / 47.5020°N 119.5120°W / 47.5020; -119.5120
Catchment area 367 sq mi (950 km2)
Basin countries United States
Max. length 8 mi (13 km)
Average depth 15 ft (4.6 m)
Max. depth 27 ft (8.2 m)
Water volume 19,500 acre·ft (24,100,000 m3)
Shore length1 14.4 mi (23.2 km)
Surface elevation 1,075 ft (328 m)
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake Lenore (a.k.a. Lenore Lake) is located in Grant County, Washington. It is a 1,670-acre (680 ha) lake formed by the Missoula Floods in the lower Coulee just north of the town of Soap Lake, Washington. It is situated between Alkali Lake to the north and Soap Lake to the south. The lake is rather narrow, but long. The length of the lake runs north–south alongside Washington State Route 17 leading from near the city of Moses Lake to Coulee City, Washington.

One of the interesting areas around Lake Lenore is the Lenore Caves. Located at the northern end of the lake, the Lenore Caves are a series of overhangs along the cliffs at the lake. They exist in one of the largest volcanic regions on Earth.

Statistics

Lenore Caves

The Lenore Caves were formed by the plucking of basalt from the walls of the coulees by the rush of melt waters and are geologically different from most caverns. They were later used as shelters by prehistoric man.

On Washington State Route 17 along Lake Lenore is a turn-off that leads to a parking area at the beginning of a trail. There is a sign with information about the caves and a general history of the area. There are seven caves accessible by well-maintained trails leading to the caves scattered about the eastern wall of the Grand Coulee across from Lake Lenore.

History

On January 13, 1947, the U.S. War Assets Administration disposed of drums of sodium into Lake Lenore. See a January 13, 1947 newsreel.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lenore Lake (Washington).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.