The Lakes That Vanish Every Year and Come Back: Seasonal Lakes Explained
Karst sinkholes, glacial outbursts and evaporating basins create lakes that drain and refill on a schedule. Where to see them and why it happens.
Strange Lakes: How They Form & Where to See Them
Where chemistry, biology and geology produce water in colours that look edited.
Lakes change colour for a small number of reasons, and all of them are measurable. Suspended glacial flour produces opaque turquoise. Algae and bacteria produce pinks and reds. Dissolved minerals and high salinity produce greens and yellows. Almost none of the famous coloured lakes are artificially coloured, and almost all of them are best understood from above, which is why so many became famous from satellite and aerial photography.
How strange lakes form
The mechanism, without the jargon.
- 01Glacial flour — rock ground to fine powder by a glacier — stays suspended and scatters blue and green light.
- 02Halophilic (salt-loving) algae and bacteria produce carotenoid pigments that turn water pink or red at high salinity.
- 03High salt concentration changes how water absorbs light and can produce strong greens and yellows without any biology involved.
- 04Crater, tectonic and solution lakes each have their own chemistry, which is why two lakes 50 km apart can look entirely different.
Best time to see them
Colour intensity often depends on season. Pink lakes are typically most vivid in dry, sunny periods when salinity and algal concentration are highest; glacial lakes are clearest and most turquoise in late summer, once the meltwater has settled.
How to get there
Many are remote and best seen from the air; scenic flights are the standard way to see the famous pink lakes. Others have boardwalks and viewing platforms. Swimming is sometimes permitted and sometimes prohibited to protect the very organisms that create the colour.
Tickets, permits & fees
Most natural lakes on public land are free. Developed viewpoints, boardwalks and national park entry carry the usual fees; scenic flights over remote lakes are the expensive option and usually the only way to see them properly.
Notable strange lakes
Five worth building a trip around.
-
Lake Hillier
Western Australia
A bubblegum-pink lake separated from the ocean by a thin strip of sand. The colour persists in a bottle and is caused by halophilic algae, not by anything artificial.
Year round, best viewed by air Guide -
Lake Retba
Senegal
Pink from Dunaliella salina algae, and salt-harvested by hand by locals who work on the surface for hours a day.
January–March -
Peyto and Moraine
Canada
Rock flour from active glaciers produces a turquoise so saturated it looks dyed. Best in July and August when melt is peaking.
July–August -
Laguna Colorada
Bolivia
A shallow red lake at 4,300 m, tinted by algae and minerals, with flamingos feeding in the borax shallows.
May–October -
Lake Natron
Tanzania
Caustic, highly alkaline water with a pH near 10.5, where the surface reflects red and orange and flamingos nest on the salt crust.
June–September
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