Big Spirit Lake
Iowa's largest natural lake on a live webcam, carved by a glacier and busy with boats all summer.
About this view
Big Spirit Lake is the largest natural lake in Iowa: about 5,684 acres, four miles long and three across. A glacier left it behind roughly 13,000 years ago as a meltwater pothole, and it has never been deep: 17 feet on average, 24 at its lowest point.
This is the top of the Iowa Great Lakes, the cluster that also holds West and East Okoboji. In summer the water fills with fishing boats, pontoons and sailboats; the shoreline is cabins and docks. Come winter the whole thing freezes hard enough for ice houses to appear on it.
On this 24/7 live webcam, sunset is the reliably good hour, straight across open water. Late spring through September is the busy season; January and February bring the ice fishing, which is its own slow spectacle.
