Skip to main content
LakeQuality

Alpine Lake vs Red Rock Lake

Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.

Alpine Lake and Red Rock Lake both received the same overall water quality grade of B (Good). Both are in Cook County, Minnesota.

Alpine Lake and Red Rock Lake are both in Minnesota — a same-state head-to-head where the comparison comes down to lake-specific differences in depth, watershed, and monitoring history rather than the broader state-level water-quality regime. The grades are close: Alpine Lake (B) and Red Rock Lake (B) are within one letter of each other on the LakeGrade rubric. The per-parameter sub-grades below will show where the small differences actually live.

With grades this close, the choice between the two lakes turns on non-water-quality factors: depth, fish species, public access, distance from home. The per-lake pages below cover all of those.

B

Alpine Lake

Cook County, Minnesota

Good clarity, visible to about 12 ft.

B

Red Rock Lake

Cook County, Minnesota

Good clarity, visible to about 12.7 ft.

Side-by-Side Metrics

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.

MetricAlpine LakeRed Rock Lake
Overall GradeB (Good)B (Good)
Water Clarity12 ft12.7 ft
PhosphorusNo dataNo data
Chlorophyll-a (Algae)No dataNo data
Maximum Depth65 ft64 ft
Surface Area908.63 acres450.9 acres
Public AccessNoNo
Fish Species01
Trophic Statemesotrophicmesotrophic

Bold value = better for that metric (lower phosphorus / chlorophyll = cleaner; higher Secchi / depth / species count = better).

Verdict

Both lakes earn the same Grade B. The tiebreakers come down to clarity (Alpine Lake: 12 ft, Red Rock Lake: 12.7 ft) and what you want from the lake. Alpine Lake has fewer fish species than Red Rock Lake.