Chelan Lake

Lake in Chelan County, north-central Washington, USA; area 90 km/55 mi from northwest to southeast; width 1-3 km/0.5-2 mi. It lies in the eastern Cascade Range, and is parallelled (to the southwest) by the Chelan Mountains, a spur of the Cascades. The largest glacial lake in the Cascades, it is more than 460 m/1,500 ft deep in places. Passenger ferries run from Chelan City (population (2000) 3,500), on the more developed southern end, through fjordlike canyons to Stehekin on the northern end, which is surrounded by the 25,100 ha/62,000 ac Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. The lake drains into the Columbia River at its southern end via the 6 km/4 mi-long Chelan River.