What’s the difference between a pond and a lake? That was on our mind in Maine because we saw some signs naming ponds and some signs naming lakes but the distinction was not always obvious. So, what makes a body of fresh water a pond or a lake? According to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, ponds and lakes are generally distinguished from each other by whether sunlight can penetrate to the bottom of the body of water. So deep water makes a lake and shallow water makes a pond. If sunlight penetrates to all areas of the bottom of body of water, then it’s considered a pond and if it doesn’t, then it’s considered a lake. Of course there is a gray area but I wasn’t there long enough to determine whether the bodies of water we saw and photographed were actually ponds or lakes. What they all had in common was that they were gorgeous and with the clouds, unexpected because the weather forecasts predicted bald skies, they were drop dead gorgeous.