The best pink lakes in the world have unique shades of water that can be seen in the lake. The water of a lake looks pink for many reasons, and the shade of pink might vary. You can’t deny the colors of some of these lakes, however, but you can have a truly unique experience in some of the world’s finest waters. Click here to follow our favorites from the world’s top lakes in pink waters.

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pink lakes of the world

What is Pink Lake?

Pink Lakes are natural lakes that appear pink in colour. This phenomenon occurs when the water contains a large number of algae. These lakes can be found worldwide, and this blog post examines some of their most notable locations! Most of the Pink Lakes have saltwater.

Why Pink Lakes are Pink?

Most Pink Lakes owe their color to the presence of red algae (Dunaliella salina) that takes on different shades in each body of water. The algae, which thrive on minerals in lake water, or result from pollution from livestock pens or human refuse, will turn the surrounding environment a distinctive hue that can range anywhere from delicate blush pink to dark burgundy depending on geographical location and season.

Stunning Pink Lakes in Australia

Australia as a country has the biggest amount of Pink Lakes, so we will start from there.

Lake Hillier—Western Australia

Lake Hillier, located on Middle Island in Western Australia, looks from above (the best way to see it is from above) as a big pink bubble gum balloon. It measures 600 metres by 250 meters and is surrounded by dunes and dense woodland eucalyptus forest.

Lake Hillier is a salt lake on the s Western Australia’s south coast. It is rich in salt and surrounded by red halobacteria bacteria, which stains the water pink, making it one of the pinkest lakes in the world.

The unique hue of these lakes is permanent and does not change even when the water is taken to a different container.

Lake Hillier got discovered in 1802.

lake hillier Australia
Bright Pink Lake Hillier Australia Photo Source Wikimedia Commons

Hutt Lagoon — Australia

Another Australian lake that shares the same pink hue is Hutt Lagoon. The 27-square-mile salt lake located in Western Australia changes color depending on the time of day, season, and weather. It is said to be most beautiful when it’s mid-morning and at sunset. It’s a beautiful pink lake in the fishing village of Port Gregory, WA, and the colours transform into red and purple.

Hutt Lagoon, Australia has high salt content as it gets water from the Indian Ocean from which is separated only by narrow dunes.

Western Australia Pink Lake – Hutt Lagoon

Pink Lake in Murray Sunset National Park, Australia

Murray-Sunset National Park is home to Pink Lakes. These lakes are in the remote and unspoilt corner of northwest Victoria, drawing photographers from all over the world. Best to Explore them by four-wheel drive or canoe. Its a good idea to camp in there in a stargazing tent to admire starry skies.

Salt mine relics and mounds of salt have lain abandoned on the edges of the Pink Lakes.

Lake MacDonnell in South Australia

Lake MacDonnell is one of the Pink Lakes in Australia and it is located in South Australia. It’s also known as Pink Lake, which derives its colour from the algae, Dunaliella salina. The greenery found around this Pink Lake changes to a burgundy color at sunset and you can admire the gorgeous greens and reds that are seen with the lake’s water.

Lake Macdonnell can be found in a small town called Penong and it has been used for salt farming. It is actually situated 15 km south of Penong on the way to Point Sinclair and you can find Pink Lake, Green Lake, and Blue Lake all together when driving towards Port Gregory along the causeway.

Quairading Pink Lake, Australia

The Quairading Pink Lake is located in Western Australia. It’s about 6 miles long and 3 miles wide. The water has a high manganese content so it looks like pink champagne when viewed from above. Lake is divided into two by road crossing through it.

Lake Bumbunga

Lake Bumbunga is located 1 hour and 40 minutes drive from Adelaide close to the famous wine region of Clare Valley. It’s a salt lake on the s Western Australia’s south coast. It is rich in salt and surrounded by red halobacteria bacteria, which stains the water Pink, making it one of the Pinkest lakes in the world. It has a color of pink bubble gum.

Pink Lakes in Oman

Oman has Pink lakes, and they are located in the Al Suwaih and Sarij beach in South Sharqiyah, and the other in Al Jazir in the Al Wusta Governorate. Both sites have moderate temperatures and the lakes welcome migrant birds such as flamingos.

Situated about 300km away from the capital city Muscat, Pink Lake in Al Suwaih takes a little over three hours by drive. Pink Lakes in Oman are rich with salt, surrounded by red halobacteria bacteria that stain the water pink. Omani Pink lakes are changing colors depends on the season and saltiness of the water.

Laguna Colorada in Bolivia

Lake Colorada’s part is located in the Andes Mountain range in the northern highlands of Bolivia, and it’s breathtaking. It’s worth mentioning that this lake is one of the most concentrated saltwater lakes in the world. This pink lake is surrounded by a picturesque mountain range of snow-capped peaks. The Bolivian government has declared this to be a National Reserve.

One of the most beautiful places in South America is Laguna Colorada – a shallow, salty lake in a characteristic burgundy colour. It owes its unusual colour to the red sediments and pigmentation of some algae. On the lake’s surface, you can see numerous white spots – these are islands made of borax (sodium tetraborate) – a mineral compound easily soluble in water.

The Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon) is located in Bolivia and is a saltwater lake with a high concentration of salts that give the water its pink color. It national park Laguna Colorada, which means “reddish lagoon”. The Pink Lake has an average height of 30 meters (98 ft ) and a surface area of 15 square kilometres (14 sq mi).

Can you swim in Laguna Colorada, Bolivia?

There are no regulations on swimming in this lake, but visitors must be careful about ingesting water into their mouths while swimming or drinking from it while they’re there. Plus lake is not very deep – only 1.5 meters and has a muddy bottom.

Lake Natron—Tanzania

Lake Natron is located in the East African region of Arusha in northern Tanzania in northern Tanzania and bordering Kenya. It’s home to millions of Lesser flamingos. Water in the lake is acidic and alkaline, so caustic it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that are not adapted to it. 

The salt-loving microorganisms that colour Lake Natron turn the lake into shades of pink and red. The lake is toxic to many species, including humans, but it supports wildlife that thrives here. It is one of the world’s primary breeding sites for lesser flamingos, an estimated 75% of them being born here. The flamingos are pink because they consume large amounts of pigmented phytoplankton at the lake, turning it red and white in some areas of the lake’s salt. The animals that live in the lake thrive in hypersaline or hyper alkaline conditions. However, they are not immune to many animals living in other acidic conditions.

sodium carbonate

Lake Retba in Africa

Lake Retba, Senegal is one of the world’s most saltier lakes and famous for its pink hue. This bright pink lake is most beautiful during its dry season between November to June. The salt around the lake Retba is used to make salt. The lake is even saltier than the Dead Sea.

Las Salinas de Torrevieja—Spain

Las Salina de Torrevieja in Valencia, Spain is 3,459 acres of pure relaxation thanks to the salt. It was built to collect the ocean’s salt from the 13th century.

Flamingos and flamingos are visible in the lake during the breeding season during its breeding season. The lake is also home to mountains of salt, which are visible everywhere from the sea to the sea and the surrounding hillsides of the Spanish city of Valencia.

pink lakes

The most famous pink lake in Europe is located about 50 kilometres south of Alicante in the region of Murcia. The area with the lake with unusual colours is a protected area of Parque Natural de las Lagunas de La Mata y Torrevieja.

W Torrevieja used to be a salt mining where annually, from 600 to 700 tons of salt was harvested.

Las Salinas de Torrevieja is a protected nature reserve on Spain’s Mediterranean coast. Lake gets its colour from microalgae D. salina and halophiles. The lake is located between the sea and two saltwater lagoons. Flamingo flocks descend on the area during migration season. 

The Audouin Gull has nested in the lake for decades and has some of the largest colonies in the world. The lake has a high concentration of brine shrimp, and other birds spend time here because of the high concentrations of shrimps in the saltwater. The lake is also the only pink thing in the town.

Lake Masazir (Azerbaijan)

Masazir Lake is a few miles outside of Baku, the cultural and economic hub of Azerbaijan. It has an area of 3.9 square miles and is one of few smaller water bodies in the world’s top ten lakes on this list of salt-fishing lakes. It is thought to be caused by the presence of pigment-producing bacteria in warm weather. Workers extract the salt in small plots during warm months when the water evaporates and exposes salt. The pink color of this particular lake is at its brightest in the warm season when it is full of its own salt deposits and is often found in the middle of the year.

Lac Rose (Senegal)

Lac Rose or Lake Retba is on the edge of Senegal’s Cap-Vert Peninsula. Sand dunes separate its water from the Atlantic Ocean. Locals harvest and process enormous quantities of salt in the area to prepare for distribution. The lake also contains D. salina – the algae that make pinkish pigment – but the color varies from deep to light pink colour from season to season. Residents cover their skin in shea butter to protect their skin from the salt from Lac Rose’s salinity and make it appear as thick as possible in the wild. At least 2,500 people are involved in collecting the salt and preparing it for distribution around the world.

Great Salt Lake Utah

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. It was created when an ancient body of water called Lake Bonneville partially dried up. It contains 4.5 to 4.9 billion tons of salt, and it contains some of the world’s biggest saltwater lakes, the Utah Salt Lake. It hosts large colonies of brine shrimp and is between 5 to 27% saline. The northern part of the lake is home to hardy halophilic microorganisms living in very high salinity. The salt lake’s southern half is the least saline, and its southern half contains the least salty section, but the northern part contains more saline parts of the salt.

Las Coloradas – Mexico

Las Coloradas are a collection of artificial pink lakes that get their colour from natural sources. The lakes in Yucatan, Mexico, were created by Mayans, who harvested salt from them in warm months when the water level was low.

Today, the lakes produce an estimated 750,000 tons of salt every year for a company called the Grupo Industrial Roche. People are strictly prohibited from swimming in these lakes, and it’s salty enough to be toxic for humans to swim in this one, but people do not swim in it because it contains beta carotene, a vitamin that gives vegetables like carrots a green color, which gives them their color.

photo source Wikimedia Common

Sivash Salt Lagoons—Russia

The Sivash salt lagoon is located on the northwest coast of the Sea of Azov (in the Crimean Peninsula ). It is a wetland with many birds that live and feed there. Tides create a natural water level variation in the lagoon that draws organisms to it. The Sivash salt lagoon provides an ecological niche for many species of birds, fish, and other species.

The Sivash salt lagoon has a dark red, pinkish colour. The colour is created by the high concentration of minerals in the water.

The word “Sasyk” is translated from Turkic as “rotten or foul-smelling” and the word “Sivash” – “mud. However, the value of this place outweighs its unpleasant name. Since the XV century, salt lakes in Crimea provided all of Ukraine and Russia with precious salt. Sivash Lake one should mention that people come here for treatment by local mud.

Most Stunning Pink Lakes of the World – Pin it for Later

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