America’s Top 5 Boating Destinations: Lake Edition
March 29, 2024 9 min read
Estimates vary, but there are something like 125,000 lakes over 20 acres in the Lower 48 states. Of course, the majority of them aren’t suitable for powerboating; most are either too small (20 acres is only about 15 football fields), inaccessible by road, off-limits to boats, or some combination thereof. Still, it’s safe to assume that there are easily 10,000 lakes in the U.S. where you can go boating — and that’s a conservative estimate.
Now, in our view, there’s no such thing as a bad boating destination. That being said, though, among the many thousands of lakes in the U.S., some are clearly better for boating than others. Here’s our list of the five best lake boating destinations in the Lower 48.
What Makes a Good Boating Destination?
There’s obviously not an objective way to measure how good a certain lake is for boating relative to another lake. Ultimately, every boater’s list will probably be different. But in putting together this Top 5, we considered several different factors in order to come up with lakes that the vast majority of boaters would love for one reason or another.
Scenic Beauty
Natural beauty is an integral part of the boating experience. That can mean different things to different people — from the cypress swamps of Louisiana to the snow-capped mountains of the west. In one way or another, though, every lake on this list is distinguished by breathtaking scenery.
Boating Infrastructure
A great boating destination has to have good infrastructure and amenities — well-designed ramps that can handle plenty of traffic, readily available fuel and supplies, waterfront businesses, accommodations and so on. Of course, boating can be great on remote, undeveloped lakes too, but they make challenging vacation destinations.
Plenty of Activities
Another characteristic shared by all the lakes on this list is that they offer opportunities for all kinds of water activities — skiing and boarding, fishing, sightseeing, waterfront dining, wildlife viewing, rafting up, spectator events, etc. Lots of lakes are great for one thing — bass fishing, for example — but not so great for anything else.
Size and Variety
If you’re going to travel to a lake for boating, you want it to be big enough to do some exploring!
If you’re going to travel to a lake for boating, you want it to be big enough to do some exploring! Small lakes can be great for boating too, but for a multi-day vacation bigger is better. All of the lakes on this list have hundreds of miles of shoreline to explore and multiple launch points. Some, like Lake Powell, would take weeks to fully explore.
Best Boating Lakes in the U.S.
Without further ado, here it is — our list of the Top 5 lake boating destinations in the Lower 48, along with an alternate choice or two for each one. If you haven’t been to one of these, you owe it to yourself and your family to choose one and start making plans for a boating vacation.
1. Lake Champlain
Long, skinny Lake Champlain stretches some 120 miles in a roughly north-south direction between New York’s Adirondack Mountains and Vermont’s Green Mountains. The lake’s clear, cold waters are studded with more than 70 islands — four of them with towns — and its almost 600 miles of shoreline comprise dramatic cliffs, forested mountains and scenic, historic communities.
You can easily spend a week cruising Champlain, the nation’s sixth largest lake. The northeastern arm of the lake, known as the Inland Sea, is a favorite, with beautiful islands and coves and the lovely St. Albans Bay. Elsewhere, you can follow Otter Creek to a waterfall in the village of Vergennes, Vermont, or dock and go ashore to explore charming Westport, New York, home of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
Lake Winnipesaukee is another New England boater’s paradise in central New Hampshire, known for its clear water, scenic vistas, hundreds of small islands, rich history and bucolic villages.
2. Lake Superior
As advertised, all of the Great Lakes are, in fact, great boating destinations.
Also as advertised, Lake Superior is … well, superior.
It’s the biggest lake in the world by surface area with some 2,700 miles of shoreline, and boasts the clearest water of all the Great Lakes.
It’s also home to some of the most picturesque islands and shores anywhere. Of them, the crown jewel is Isle Royale National Park, a remote wilderness archipelago of some 400 islands in the northern reaches of the lake that’s accessible only by boat or floatplane.
Lake Superior is home to some of the most picturesque islands and shores anywhere. Of them, the crown jewel is Isle Royale National Park.
Plan to anchor and sleep aboard, camp ashore at one of the many boat-in campgrounds or stay at the charming Rock Harbor Lodge. Dockage, fuel and basic supplies are available, but you’ll need to be mostly self-contained.
Lake Superior is also home to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, both of which provide incredible scenery and boating opportunities. Or, for a very different but equally unique Great Lakes island experience, consider Mackinac Island in the northwestern reaches of Lake Huron, home to a quaint and historic village with around 300 year-round residents and a rich boating and sailing history.
3. Lake of the Ozarks
Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks is the epicenter of recreational boating between the Great Lakes to the north, Gulf of Mexico to the south, Atlantic Ocean to the east and Colorado River to the west.
This vast boaters’ playground is some 92 miles long with 54,000 acres of surface area and more than 1,100 miles of shoreline.
Although the fishing is good and there are plenty of opportunities for watersports and family recreation, LOTO is best known for its legendary party scene and numerous performance powerboat races and runs.
Not into rowdy raft-ups or P1 powerboats? Visit LOTO in October, when the crowds have gone home and the fall leaves are blazing, or try one of other huge, serpentine reservoirs throughout the Ozarks region: Table Rock, Bull Shoals and Beaver Lake along the border between Arkansas and Missouri.
4. Flathead Lake
Less than 50 miles from the Canadian border in the Northern Rockies, Montana’s Flathead Lake has a short boating season but more than makes up for it in natural beauty.
Half again the size of Lake Tahoe, Flathead is the biggest natural lake between the Mississippi and the Pacific in the Lower 48.
Half again the size of Lake Tahoe, Flathead Lake is the biggest natural lake between the Mississippi and the Pacific in the Lower 48.
Its water isn’t quite as clear as Tahoe’s, but it’s close. The 30 mile by 15 mile lake is ringed by towering mountain summits and its shores are dotted with postcard-pretty towns, rustic resorts and rental cabins. The lake’s largest island, Wild Horse Island, is a boat-in Montana State Park populated with — you guessed it — wild horses, plus mule deer, bighorn sheep, bears and many smaller species of wildlife.
Less than 100 miles to the west, Lakes Coeur d’Alene and Pend Oreille in northern Idaho are similarly scenic with great summer boating and fishing opportunities. The most famous of the west’s big mountain lakes, Tahoe, is arguably the most spectacular, but for visiting boaters launching can be difficult and expensive.
5. Lake Powell
With its otherworldly canyon scenery and maze-like expanse, sprawling Lake Powell in southern Utah is the ultimate freshwater houseboating and boat camping destination. With nearly 2,000 miles of shoreline, you could spend a month on the water and not come close to exploring every canyon, arch, beach, island and fishing hole.
With its otherworldly canyon scenery and maze-like expanse, sprawling Lake Powell in southern Utah is the ultimate freshwater houseboating and boat camping destination.
You can stay in a nearby hotel and rent a slip for your boat, RV camp on the beach with your boat pulled up in front, tent camp, rent a houseboat, or camp on your own boat.
Of course, Powell isn’t the only reservoir on the Colorado River. Lakes Havasu and Mead are also great boating destinations — just with a different feel. Powell is more of a wilderness experience; Mead and especially Havasu are much more heavily used, party-oriented, and popular with the performance boat crowd.
Honorable Mention Lake Boating Destinations
Although they don’t show up on the Top 5 list or in the alternates, these lakes are also great in their own right.
- Lake George, New York — Champlain’s slightly smaller sibling to the south with crystal-clear water, stunning views of the Adirondacks and historic lakefront resorts.
- Lake of the Woods, Minnesota — Massive lake surrounded by northwoods wilderness and considered “the walleye capital of the world;” has some 15,000 islands.
- Lake Cumberland, Kentucky — Sprawling lake billed as “the houseboat capital of the world;” also a watersports paradise and a legendary striped bass fishery.
- Lake Jocassee, South Carolina — Possibly the clearest major lake in the southeastern U.S. with dozens of scenic waterfalls pouring into the lake.
- Lake Lanier, Georgia — Atlanta and northern Georgia’s watersports playground and an epicenter of performance powerboating; good largemouth, spotted and striped bass fishing too.
- Lake Texoma, Texas and Oklahoma — Not necessarily the most scenic of lakes but still the boating capital of the southern plains.
- Fort Peck Lake, Montana — Windswept and desolate but really the only game in town when it comes to large lakes in the northern plains; great fishing for a wide variety of species.
- Jackson Lake, Wyoming — Water rarely tops 60˚ so bring your wetsuit for watersports, but the scenery, literally in the shadow of the Tetons, can’t be matched.
- Lake Chelan, Washington — Long, fjordlike and stunningly beautiful lake in the eastern Cascades surrounded by vineyards and snow-capped peaks.
