Lake Chelan changes at a shallow sill in its narrow waist. The lower Wapato Basin runs twelve miles and reaches four hundred feet, yet holds only eight percent of the lake's water. Orchards still line this end; since 2009, the valley has also carried an AVA name. Beyond the sill, Lucerne stretches another thirty-eight miles and holds the remaining ninety-two percent, fed by forest and glaciers. At its upper end, no road connects Stehekin to the outside, and personal watercraft are barred. The divide continues underwater. Wapato's water averaged 13.5 meters of Secchi clarity in 2007, yet its orchard legacy survives in lake trout carrying some of the country's highest recorded DDT levels. Sediment studies found far less DDT above the sill. Lucerne moves for a different reason: wind along its long reach once de-masted a sailboat at Stehekin and rocks the thermocline roughly a hundred feet at either end every few days — one of the largest internal seiches documented anywhere.
curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The facts
- Surface area 132.2 km² usgs-3dhp · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Nearest town Chelan · 0.2 km osm-overpass · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird species (within 25 mi) 174 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird diversity index 0.89 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Median home value $603,225 census-acs-2024-b25077 · block-group-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Water clarity Glass-clear curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Night sky Dark skies viirs-black-marble-vnp46a4 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Surroundings Resort — a shoreline built for visitors curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Water origin Natural lake with a regulated outlet curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
In more detail
- Climate
- strongly four-season; cold winters (~30°F mean), warm summers (~70°F); ~12 in precip/yr noaa-normals-1991-2020-descriptor · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Public access
- Lake Chelan has extensive, multi-jurisdiction public access. Washington State Parks operates Lake Chelan State Park on the south shore (sandy swim beach, two-lane boat launch, 144 campsites). The City of Chelan operates several lakefront parks including Chelan Riverwalk Park (boat launch, dog-friendly) and Don Morse Memorial Park (large public beach). The north end of the lake (Stehekin) lies within the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, part of the North Cascades National Park complex, and is reachable only by boat, floatplane, or trail (no road access). Fees/permits: Discover Pass required at WA State Parks facilities ($10/day or $45/annual) plus a $7 watercraft launch fee at Lake Chelan State Park; Chelan PUD's public launch is reported free. City of Chelan park fees not confirmed. Federal dock-site pass required for NPS docks near Stehekin (not independently fetched this pass).. Sources: parks.wa.gov (fetched 2026-07-12); cityofchelan.gov (fetched 2026-07-12); nps.gov (fetched 2026-07-12); chelanpud.org (search-extraction 2026-07-12). curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Dogs and pets
- low — the City of Chelan prohibits dogs of any size in Don Morse Memorial Park from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, confirming a seasonal negative exception at a major Lake Chelan public park. curator · lake-level · as of Jul 19, 2026
- Property tax
- 0.71% ACS effective-rate proxy (2024 ACS 5-year; Chelan County anchor: $3,503 median real-estate taxes paid ÷ $490,100 median owner-occupied home value; Washington proxy 0.81%, -0.09 percentage points). census-acs-2024-property-tax · county-level · as of Dec 31, 2024
Where it’s heading
Rising hand-rated for v0.1 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
Rising on population and pressure rather than price: the City of Chelan grew 3,890 → 4,222 between the 2010 and 2020 censuses (+8.5%; Wikipedia/Census via the harvest); county code (2021-07-27) counted "up to 1,500 known rental units" after a "55% increase from 2015 to 2019" in unincorporated areas, answered by an August-2020 moratorium and a 6%-of-housing cap, while the 2026 fight is over whether the city adds a cap of its own (RC3 letter 2026-03-25; ncw.news 2026-05-29, index-only); LCRI 2021 describes "substantial development in the lower part of the Chelan Valley" and the airport's runway relocation (77.9-acre acquisition) is in environmental assessment. Hedges: the decade's population gain is modest, the STR growth is now capped in the county, and the price level is a Spread (county ACS $545,900 vs the $603,225 block group) — the trajectory is pressure and development, not a documented price run.