Long before anyone touched it, Bear Lake sat apart from the Bear River for something like ten to fifteen thousand years — a half-graben basin already a quarter-million years old, fed chiefly by groundwater and a scatter of west-shore creeks. Then in 1911–12 came the fix: the river now diverts north at Stewart Dam, rides the Rainbow Canal into Mud Lake, the shallow pond a natural dike sets against the lake proper. No spillway was ever built here. What leaves, leaves through the Lifton pumping station — an outlet that spends power instead of making it. The gap between today's waterline and full pool is measured in pump-hours at Lifton, not only inches of missing rain. The color looks tropical in a photograph. The temperature does not: fifty-three degrees under an eighty-degree June sky, cold enough to take a swimmer's strength fast. Biologists now plan the January cisco run around open water and tell anglers to bring waders.
curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The facts
- Surface area 283.3 km² usgs-3dhp · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Nearest town Lakota · 6.6 km osm-overpass · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird species (within 25 mi) 168 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird diversity index 0.88 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Median home value $302,833 census-acs-2024-b25077 · block-group-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Water clarity Clear curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Night sky Darkest 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 (~25°F mean), mild summers (~65°F); ~18 in precip/yr noaa-normals-1991-2020-descriptor · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Public access
- Bear Lake straddles the Utah/Idaho line. The Utah shoreline is managed by Utah State Parks as Bear Lake State Park, with three developed areas: the Marina (year-round, 7-lane launch ramp, 361 long-term + 21 transient boat slips, day-use beach), Rendezvous Beach (seasonal ~May 1-Oct 23, 1.25-mile day-use/camping beach with group pavilion and campgrounds), and the Eastside (four primitive campgrounds - South Eden, Cisco Beach, Rainbow Cove, North Eden - with additional boat ramps at First Point, Cisco Beach, and Rainbow Cove). All Utah-side areas charge day-use entry fees. The Idaho shoreline is separately managed by Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation with developed public units at North Beach and East Beach, the latter including boat ramps. Fees/permits: Utah side: day-use entry fee required at all developed areas (Marina/Rendezvous Beach resident $15-$25 season-dependent, non-resident $20-$30; Eastside resident $10-$20, non-resident $15-$25); Utah State Parks Annual Pass accepted for entry. Camping fees roughly $20-$55/night depending on hookups and season. Idaho side fee schedule not fetched (out of primary scope for this state's harvest).. Sources: stateparks.utah.gov (fetched 2026-07-12); parksandrecreation.idaho.gov (search-extraction 2026-07-12). curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Dogs and pets
- medium — 1 dog park within 25 mi (OSM); state rule: Utah State Parks require pets to be kept on a leash no longer than 6 feet at all times and never left unattended; pets are generally prohibited in park buildings, and individual parks may layer on additional restrictions (e.g. no dogs below the high-water line at Deer Creek State Park). Governing chapter is Utah Administrative Code R651-603 (Animals), per corroborating search results; the primary fetched source is the statewide Policies and Park Rules page. (Utah State Parks - Policies and Park Rules (statewide); Utah Admin. Code R651-603 Animals (chapter reference, not independently fetched), fetched 2026-07-12); No Bear Lake-specific pet rule was found within budget. Neither the park overview nor facilities pages mention dog/pet rules, and the per-park 'traveling with pets' URL pattern used by some other Utah parks (e.g. Dead Horse Point) does not appear to exist for Bear Lake - that URL guess returned Dead Horse Point content instead. The general statewide leash policy (max 6-ft leash, never unattended) presumably applies by default; whether pets are permitted on Rendezvous Beach or the Marina beach specifically was not confirmed. curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Property tax
- 0.26% ACS effective-rate proxy (2024 ACS 5-year; Rich County anchor: $859 median real-estate taxes paid ÷ $334,600 median owner-occupied home value; Utah proxy 0.52%, -0.26 percentage points). census-acs-2024-property-tax · county-level · as of Dec 31, 2024
Where it’s heading
Stable hand-rated for v0.1 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
Stable by the mini-pass criterion: an established resort/second-home shoreline (Garden City's Bear Lake Boulevard, a 361-slip state marina, Raspberry Days since 1984) in a high-value Rich County market (2024 ACS median home $334,600). The only growth signal on the sheet is a single TripAdvisor line about 'new housing construction' — forum grade, not the documented county population or permit velocity that 'rising' requires. Rising-candidate if Rich County permit or Census data is harvested.