Rainbow Lake
Navajo County, Arizona118 acresView mapDirections
No nutrient or algae sampling on record from ADEQ for this lake.
- Impaired · Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)
- 13 ft max depth
- Public access
- Limited data
Rainbow Lake in Navajo County, Arizona has water-quality measurements published by ADEQ, shown here as reported. Surface area: 118 acres.
Rainbow Lake is a 118-acre lake in Navajo County, Arizona with an estimated average depth of about 13 feet. Water clarity is improving over recent sampling years. Limited fish-species data available. Public access is available with 1 public boat landing.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, ADEQ, last sampled 2025-11-04. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Rainbow Lake covers about 120 acres in Navajo County. It has one public boat landing. For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Rainbow Lake on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.
What Rainbow Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Boat launch1 documented ramp
Swimming conditions
No readingRecreation use not supported
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Rainbow Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 4A) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), oxygen depletion (low DO), pH / acidity. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Rainbow Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Rainbow Lake
These are the measurements ADEQ publishes for Rainbow Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
No clarity data.
Ask about Rainbow Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~13 ft est.
Surface area
118 acres
Public access
Yes
Listed by ADEQ
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Arizona has not published bathymetry for Rainbow Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
8 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
1.8 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
6,713 ft
Size, shoreline, and watershed area from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS). Mean depth here is modelled, not surveyed — HydroLAKES v1.0 estimates lake depth from surrounding terrain rather than from soundings. Treat it as an approximation, and prefer a state bathymetric survey where one exists.
Recreation & Access
- Rainbow LakePublic
Named access points in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory, within about 3 miles. More lakes with boat ramps
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Rainbow Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Rainbow Lake in Navajo County, Arizona — live availability and prices for your trip. Switch the map to Satellite to see the lake and how close each stay is to the water.
Top-rated places to stay near Rainbow Lake
Prices for Oct 30–Nov 1, 4 adults. Change dates on the map below.
Availability and prices from Stay22 partners (Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia). We may earn a commission from bookings, at no extra cost to you.
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Follow Rainbow Lake’s readings
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Fishing Rainbow Lake
Water quality readings over time
3 seasons of samples on record (2012–2016). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Improving3 years
Phosphorus
Worsening+160.69 µg/L/yr3 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Rainbow Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Lakeside (completed 1904), built primarily for irrigation on the Show Low Creek; rockfill-type dam, 21 ft tall and 400 ft long.
- Surface area
- 118 ac
- Normal storage
- 1,120 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 2,226 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 9 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Significant
- Owner
- SHOW LOW/PINETOP/WOODLAND IRRIGATION COMPANY
All listed purposes: Irrigation;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID AZ00024 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Rainbow Lake is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2024 EPA reporting cycle (IR category 4A).
Causes of impairment
Designated uses not supporting: Aquatic life, Recreation, Other.
A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan has been approved.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit AZL15020005-1170_00 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Navajo County
Frequently asked questions about Rainbow Lake
Where is Rainbow Lake?
- Rainbow Lake is a lake in Navajo County, Arizona. Its water-quality measurements are published by ADEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Rainbow Lake?
- Rainbow Lake in Navajo County, Arizona has water-quality measurements published by ADEQ, shown here as reported. Surface area: 118 acres.
Is Rainbow Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Rainbow Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 4A) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), oxygen depletion (low DO), pH / acidity. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Rainbow Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Rainbow Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 13 feet, but that is a modelled estimate derived from surrounding terrain rather than a measurement on the water, so treat it as approximate. The lake covers 118 acres.
Are there boat ramps on Rainbow Lake?
- Rainbow Lake has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Named access points include Rainbow Lake. Public access is listed as yes.
Can I fish at Rainbow Lake?
- Rainbow Lake has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Seasons, size and bag limits, and whether you need a license are set by Arizona's fish and wildlife agency, so check its current regulations before you go.
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Where this data comes from
3 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2025. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- Great Lakes Environmental Center
GLEC3 samples · 2025
Analytical methods
- 4500 P E ~ Phosphorus in Water by Colorimetry- Ascorbic Acid Method
- 300.0 ~ EPA; Determination of Inorganic Anions by Ion Chromatography
Monitoring station identifiers (1)
EPA condition classes from the National Lakes Assessment (EPA 841-R-24-006, Table 6-3), applied by ecoregion. See where the data comes from and data sources.
Other records on this page
Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)
Named boat-access points from the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory