Lake · Canada
Lake Claire
Lake Claire is the largest lake that lies completely in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is part of a huge river delta inside Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada’s largest national park.
Where is Lake Claire?
Countries on its shores: Canada.
Middle of the lake: 58.58° N, 112.08° W
The story behind it
Lake Claire lies in the far north-east of Alberta. It covers about 1 436 km², but sources give different sizes, some only about 1 250 km². It is about 59 km long and 45 km wide. Lake Athabasca, just to the east, is bigger, but it is shared with the province of Saskatchewan. The Birch River and the McIvor River bring water into Lake Claire. It belongs to the Peace-Athabasca Delta, one of the largest freshwater deltas in the world, where rivers spread out into many lakes and channels. From Lake Claire the water flows on to the Peace River and finally, far away, into the Arctic Ocean. The lake lies inside Wood Buffalo National Park. This park was created in 1922 to protect the world’s largest herd of free-roaming wood bison. Rare whooping cranes also come here to build their nests.
Find it on the globe
Lake Claire is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Claire?
Lake Claire covers about 1 436 km², but some sources give only about 1 250 km². It is about 59 km long and 45 km wide.
Is Lake Claire the largest lake in Alberta?
It is the largest lake that lies completely inside Alberta. Lake Athabasca is bigger, but only part of it is in Alberta; the rest belongs to Saskatchewan.
Which animals live near Lake Claire?
The lake lies in Wood Buffalo National Park, home to the world’s largest herd of free-roaming wood bison. It is also one of the very few places where rare whooping cranes build their nests.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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