It's as quiet and peaceful in winter as any other freshwater lake, but when spring and summer come, the 85-acre lake turns into beautiful fields. It is located in the "Lost Lake" of the Oregon Mount Hood National Forest Reserve in the United States. The Lost Lake is a natural wonder.
The reason for the lake's disappearance is generally believed to be that the riverbed is filled with water when the autumn rainy season comes, the lava pipes under the lake are only 6 feet in diameter, not enough to quickly drain the water, and the winter lava channels are also frozen, so the lake can preserve enough water. However, when the rainy season has passed, there is no sufficient water supply, coupled with the warming of spring and summer temperatures, the bottom of the lake continues to drain, which eventually leads to the "disappearance" of the entire lake.
The animals here are also very adapted to life here, for example, some amphibians burrow directly into the wet soil to wait for the rainy season to come; some small fish disappear with the flow of the water and then rise and appear again.
Where does Lost Lake go?
In Oregon, tucked away in the Cascade Mountains, a lake vanishes every summer. This unusual body of water is called Lost Lake. One clue is that the lake sits in a lava bed. It is fed by rain and snow. The lake bed has two or three holes that work as drains. During the rain-and-snow season, water begins to collect in the lake bed. By late summer, the water comes in at a trickle, and the lake gradually drains. Lost Lake goes through this unusual yearly cycle because it sits on top of hardened lava, which is full of cracks, holes, and tubes. The mountains run along the West Coast——from Northern California, through Oregon and Washington, and into Canada. Some experts think Lost Lake drains into large cracks or lava tubes.
Lost Lake is shallow, only a few feet deep. Some insects complete their life cycles, dying after they leave their young to carry on the next year. Some amphibians burrow into wet patches of soil and wait through the dry months. Some fish survive in small pools. When the lake drains that depend on it do a disappearing act of their own. They’ll be back when the lake reappears.
