Lakes / Iowa / Guthrie County / Bays Branch Lake
Bays Branch Lake, Iowa
192 acres
Surface Area
Where It Sits, and How Deep It Goes
Locator - Iowa
41.73 degrees N, 94.32 degrees W - Guthrie County. State and county outlines drawn from Census boundary data; the lake marker is placed by its USGS National Hydrography Dataset coordinates, not by eye. Schematic - not a survey map.
How Bays Branch Lake Stacks Up
- Larger than 70% of the 220 lakes counted in Iowa.
- About 37 miles from Des Moines, as the crow flies.
Lakes Nearby
| Lake | County | Distance | Surface Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Panorama | Guthrie | 4.5 mi | 1,179 acres |
| Diamondhead Lake | Dallas | 13 mi | 96 acres |
| Spring Lake | Greene | 23 mi | 49 acres |
| Meadow Lake | Adair | 25 mi | 36 acres |
| Brenton Slough | Polk | 27 mi | 62 acres |
| Goose Lake | Greene | 27 mi | 45 acres |
Straight-line distance between lake centers.
Facts and Figures
Largest Lakes in Iowa
| # | Lake | County | Surface Area | Max Depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rathbun Lake | Appanoose | 13,869 acres | - |
| 2 | Lake Red Rock | Marion | 8,619 acres | - |
| 3 | Spirit Lake | Dickinson | 5,463 acres | - |
| 4 | Saylorville Lake | Polk | 5,428 acres | - |
| 5 | Clear Lake | Cerro Gordo | 3,632 acres | - |
All 220 Iowa lakes ranked by surface area
Sources: USGS NHD (The National Map NHD MapServer layer 12) named waterbodies FTYPE 390/436; counties via Census point-in-polygon lake data (ID 155016973). Verified October 30, 2026.