Largest lakes & reservoirs in Alberta, Canada by acres
There is no widely-accepted minimum surface area that defines a lake. What LakeLubbers describes as a lake, you might call a pond. Acreage of a lake (or sometimes square kilometers) is most often measured at the top surface area when the lake is at normal elevation. The surface area can be considerably smaller or larger when lake levels are lower or higher than normal. North America’s Lake Superior is the world’s largest freshwater lake by this measure.The other measure of a lake’s size is the lake’s water volume. By that measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is Lake Baikal in Siberia.
You can find many of the world’s largest lakes (acres) on LakeLubbers in the comparison table below. Note: For some lakes, "Largest Lakes - Acres" data is unknown or does not apply, so you may see fewer lakes than the total 16 articles we have published for Alberta, Canada lakes.
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Below are lakes within Canada > Alberta, Canada > Compared by surface area in acres. This list does not represent all lakes in Alberta, Canada, only the 16 Alberta, Canada lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Surface area in acres |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Athabasca, AB (Alberta, Canada, Canada, Saskatchewan, Canada) |
1,939,776 ac | Lake Athabasca is a 1,939,776-acre lake with a maximum depth of 410 feet making it the largest and deepest lake in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. Appr… |
| Lesser Slave Lake, AB (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
288,640 ac | Located 236 miles northwest of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, Lesser Slave Lake’s more than 280,000 surface acres present a wonderful scenic recreationa… |
| Cold Lake (Alberta, Canada, Canada, Saskatchewan, Canada) |
92,160 ac | Also known as Big Fish Lake (historical) It’s hard to believe that a water body named Cold Lake would be a summer water sports paradise, but this large lake on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border… |
| Gull Lake, AB (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
19,917 ac | Surrounded by Alberta’s wide-open spaces and endless Canadian skies, Gull Lake is located in Alberta’s Central tourism region. Well situated between E… |
| Abraham Lake (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
13,248 ac | Also known as Lake Abraham Abraham Lake is Alberta’s largest reservoir, gracing the Kootenay Plains area of the Canadian Rockies’ front range. The reservoir, created by damming… |
| Sylvan Lake (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
10,576 ac | Sylvan Lake is located midway between Alberta’s two largest cities, Calgary and Edmonton, and 12 miles northwest of Red Deer. This natural lake covers… |
| Lake Minnewanka (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
6,500 ac | Also known as Minnewanka Lake Lake Minnewanka holds the distinction of being the largest lake in Banff National Park. The 17-mile-long lake lies between scenic mountain ranges and… |
| Maligne Lake (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
4,870 ac | With a name derived from the French word for wicked or evil, Alberta’s Maligne Lake (pronounced muh-leen) offers a contradictory scenic and serene fac… |
| Eagle Lake, AB (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
2,916 ac | Also known as Pataomoxecing Follow the Trans-Canada Highway 25 miles east of Calgary and you will arrive at the northern shore of Eagle Lake. Surrounded by south-central Alberta’… |
| Waterton Lakes (Alberta, Canada, Canada, Glacier Country, MT, Montana, US West Region, USA) |
2,496 ac | Also known as Chief Mountain Lake, Knights Lake, Kootenay Lakes “Where the mountains meet the prairies” is the motto of Waterton Lakes National Park, the home of three Waterton Lakes that straddle the Montana-Alber… |
| Peyto Lake (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
346 ac | Banff National Park in Alberta province is the birthplace of the Canadian national park system (1885), and Peyto Lake is one of the small, spectacular… |
| Lake Louise, AB (Alberta, Canada, Canada) |
198 ac | Snuggled into Banff National Park, Lake Louise is a small lake in Alberta, Canada framed by the Rocky Mountains. The lake’s 200 acres may not seem imp… |