Vancouver Lake

Vancouver Lake is located just west of Vancouver, Washington, United States, north of the Columbia River and Portland, Oregon, south of Ridgefield, Washington, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

The lake is shallow, with a maximum depth of 12 to 15 feet and a mean depth of less than 3 feet. There is an island in the northern half of the lake named Turtle Island. The island was formed from the tailings of an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project, which dredged around the perimeter of the lake in the early 1980s. Lake River flows from the north shore to the Columbia River near Ridgefield. Due to seasonal variation in relative river and lake levels, Lake River experiences intermittent flow reversal and flows into Vancouver Lake for considerable periods of time.