Lake Sakakawea
Lake · Riverdale, North Dakota
A reservoir 178 miles long behind Garrison Dam, impounded in 1953 and named for the Shoshone woman who travelled with Lewis and Clark from the Hidatsa villages upstream. It is the largest man-made lake wholly inside North Dakota, the second largest in the United States by surface area and the third largest by volume, and the dam that made it is one of the largest earth-fill embankments in the world. It also drowned the bottomlands of the Fort Berthold Reservation, and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation lost the heart of its homeland to it.
North Dakota Highway 200, Riverdale, North Dakota, 58565, United States
Open 24 hours a day, year round, along 178 miles of shoreline. Corps of Engineers recreation areas are generally free; the three state parks on the lake charge a per-vehicle entry fee and their campgrounds are reservable and seasonal. ⚠ THE LIMITING FACTORS ARE WEATHER AND WATER LEVEL RATHER THAN HOURS - wind builds hard on open water most summer afternoons, reservoir levels move between years and put individual boat ramps out of service, and the lake is frozen from roughly December to March. The Garrison Dam overlook and the national fish hatchery beside it keep their own seasonal hours. The United States Army Corps of Engineers site returns 403 to automated requests, so its hours could not be machine-verified.