Endorheic Basins - Notable Endorheic Basins and Lakes - North and Central America

North and Central America

• The Valley of Mexico. In Pre-Columbian times, the Valley was substantially covered with five lakes, including Lake Texcoco, Lake Xochimilco, and Lake Chalco.
• Guzmán Basin, in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. The Mimbres River of New Mexico drains into this basin.
• Lago de Atitlán, in the highlands of Guatemala.
• Lago de Coatepeque, El Salvador.
• Bolsón de Mapimí, in northern Mexico.
• Willcox Playa of southern Arizona.
• The Great Basin, which covers much of Nevada, Oregon and Utah, is a large region of contiguous closed basins, including:
  • Great Salt Lake, in Utah, the largest terminal lake in the Western Hemisphere.
  • The Black Rock Desert in Nevada, location of the Thrust2 and ThrustSSC landspeed record runs, and the annual home to the Burning Man festival.
  • Death Valley, the lowest land point in the United States. During the Holocene epoch, Lake Manly filled the Death Valley basin of Inyo County, California. Later, Death Valley had a system of tributary basins:
    • Rogers Dry Lake, at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
    • Owens Lake and the Owens River basin.
      • Mono Lake in California.
  • Groom Dry Lake in Nevada, location of Area 51.
  • Abert Lake and Summer Lake in Oregon.
  • Goose Lake (Oregon-California) on the California/Oregon border. Historically it drained into the Pit River. Agricultural development and irrigation diversions have lowered the lake level so that it no longer drains to the sea.
  • Malheur Lake in Oregon.
  • Warner Valley in Oregon.
  • Alvord Desert in Oregon.
  • Salton Sea in California, a lake accidentally recreated in 1905 when irrigation canals ruptured, filling a desert endorheic basin and recreating an ancient saline sea.
  • Lake Elsinore in California and the San Jacinto River. Intermittently drains into the Santa Ana River.
  • Sevier Lake, in Utah.
  • Pyramid Lake in Nevada, whose drainage basin includes Lake Tahoe.
  • Humboldt Sink and the Humboldt River basin in Nevada.
  • Carson Sink and the Carson River basin in Nevada.
  • Walker Lake and the Walker River in Nevada.
• Tulare Lake in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley fed by the Kaweah and Tule Rivers plus southern distributaries of the Kings. Historically, in very wet years it would drain into the San Joaquin River. Agricultural development and irrigation diversions have left the lake dry.
• Buena Vista Lake at the southmost end of the San Joaquin Valley fed by the Kern River. Historically, in exceptionally wet years it would drain into Tulare Lake and then into the San Joaquin River. Agricultural development and irrigation diversions have left the lake dry.
• Crater Lake, in Oregon.
• The Great Divide Basin in Wyoming, a small endorheic basin that straddles the Continental Divide of the Americas.
• Devils Lake, in North Dakota.
• Devil's Lake, in Wisconsin.
• Little Manitou Lake in Saskatchewan.
• Old Wives Lake, on the Laurentian Divide in Saskatchewan.
• Pakowki Lake, on the Laurentian Divide in Alberta.

• New Mexico has a number of desert endorheic basins including:
  • The Tularosa Basin, a rift valley.
  • Zuni Salt Lake, a maar.
  • The Mimbres River Basin, in Grant County.

• Lago Enriquillo on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea.

Many small lakes and ponds in North Dakota and Manitoba are endorheic; some of them have salt encrustations along their shores.