Red Lake is located on the eastern border of the long north-south Defiance Plateau, where Canyon de Chelly comprises its north, and the Chuska Mountains border to the northeast. Only the western fourth of the lake is in Arizona, and Red Lake is on the southwest foothills of the Chuska's with the beginning of Black Creek and other creeks and washes as inflows to the lake. From Red Lake, Black Creek flows due south on the central and southeast border of the Defiance Plateau. The north-south stretch of Black Creek, in Arizona, parallels the western border of New Mexico.