Late afternoon sun over Slim Lake, scattering a bright path across wind-textured water

40 graded lakes within 4 hr of downtown

Driving from Denver to a lake worth swimming in

Chatfield Reservoir is the closest graded water to Denver, 35 min away, and it grades B. That is unusual: the closest lake is also the cleanest one worth driving to, so there is no tradeoff to make here.

Every lake below is ranked by how long the drive is, and labelled with the water-quality letter it earned. Closest is not the same as cleanest, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

Slim Lake, Washburn County, Wisconsin. Photo: Tim Adair — Original photograph

Closest water

BChatfield Reservoir

35 min

18.4 road miles · Jefferson County, CO

The shortest drive on this page. Its letter is B.

Closest A

ABoyd Lake

1 hr 7 min

51.9 road miles · Larimer County, CO

32 min further than the closest lake.

Closest B

BChatfield Reservoir

35 min

18.4 road miles · Jefferson County, CO

32 min closer than the nearest A.

Closest public access

BChatfield Reservoir

35 min

18.4 road miles · Jefferson County, CO

A boat landing or launch point is on the record for this lake.

Closer, or cleaner — the whole ladder

40 lakes, sorted by drive time from downtown Denver. Letters in range: 5 A, 8 B, 10 C, 14 D, 3 F. Some of the best water is over a state line — this list crosses into Wyoming, Nebraska. The furthest entry is North Sterling Reservoir at 2 hr 53 min.

Drive	Lake	Grade	Road miles	County	Size	Access
35 min	Chatfield Reservoir	B	18.4	Jefferson County, CO	1,150 ac	✓ Public
49 min	Union Reservoir	D	36.8	Weld County, CO	717 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 3 min	Horse Creek Outlet Lake	D	35.6	Weld County, CO	712 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 4 min	Prospect Lake	F	43.6	Weld County, CO	398 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 7 min	Boyd Lake	A	51.9	Larimer County, CO	1,747 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 10 min	Windsor Lake	D	57.7	Weld County, CO	197 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 11 min	Lon Hagler Reservoir	A	55.2	Larimer County, CO	201 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 25 min	Prospect Lake	F	70.7	El Paso County, CO	51 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 33 min	Douglas Reservoir	A	72.7	Larimer County, CO	565 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 43 min	Dillon Reservoir	D	74.1	Summit County, CO	3,300 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 50 min	Lake Absarraca	B	101.6	Laramie County, WY	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 54 min	Sloans Lake	D	102.1	Laramie County, WY	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 59 min	Hereford Reservoir	D	107.8	Laramie County, WY	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 4 min	Green Mountain Reservoir	A	93	Summit County, CO	2,125 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 5 min	Rampart Reservoir	C	87.8	El Paso County, CO	300 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 9 min	Sky Pond Hypolimnion	D	77.6	Larimer County, CO	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 9 min	The Loch Hypolimnion Lake	C	77.6	Larimer County, CO	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 9 min	The Loch Surface Lake	C	77.6	Larimer County, CO	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 15 min	Windy Gap Reservoir	D	88.8	Grand County, CO	108 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 17 min	Turquoise Reservoir	D	105.4	Lake County, CO	1,788 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 20 min	Jackson Reservoir	D	81.4	Morgan County, CO	2,427 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 24 min	Wolford Mountain Reservoir	C	109.2	Grand County, CO	1,550 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 25 min	Dowdy Lake	D	110.8	Larimer County, CO	83 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 26 min	Willow Creek Reservoir	C	93.7	Grand County, CO	303 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 28 min	Crystal Reservoir	B	119.3	Laramie County, WY	136 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 29 min	South Crow Reservoir	C	119.6	Laramie County, WY	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 30 min	Pueblo Reservoir	A	122.2	Pueblo County, CO	5,671 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 31 min	Shadow Mountain Lake	D	97.8	Grand County, CO	1,852 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 31 min	Antero Reservoir	C	106.3	Park County, CO	3,446 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 33 min	Lake Granby Dam Bottom	B	92.8	Grand County, CO	7,260 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 33 min	Granite Springs Reservoir	B	121.6	Laramie County, WY	190 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 35 min	Lower North Crow Reservoir	B	120.8	Laramie County, WY	0 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 38 min	Elevenmile Reservoir	D	114.7	Park County, CO	Not recorded	✓ Public
2 hr 40 min	Twin Lakes East	C	120.6	Lake County, CO	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 40 min	Twin Lakes West	C	121.7	Lake County, CO	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 40 min	Twin Lake West Lower	D	121.7	Lake County, CO	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 42 min	Grand Lake	C	102.4	Grand County, CO	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 47 min	Upper North Crow Reservoir	B	128.1	Laramie County, WY	94 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 48 min	Oliver Reservoir	B	154.9	Kimball County, NE	264 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 53 min	North Sterling Reservoir	F	142.5	Logan County, CO	2,880 ac	✓ Public

What the numbers are, and are not

Drive times and road miles are one-way road routing from downtown Denver to the nearest public road at each lake, over the OpenStreetMap network via OSRM (router.project-osrm.org) over OpenStreetMap, driving profile, free-flow. Free-flow means no traffic model and no time of day, so a weekend morning will beat these numbers and a Friday afternoon will not.

The letter is the lake’s A–F water-quality grade: clarity, total phosphorus and chlorophyll-a measured over years, not a rating of the beach, the boat ramp or the view. An A describes the lake’s record; it does not clear the water for a particular afternoon. Lakes with no letter are not listed here, because the letter is the only axis this page ranks on.

Size and access come from the lake record where the agency published them. “Not recorded” means nobody documented it — it is a gap in the paperwork, not a statement about the lake.

More lakes near Denver

All Colorado lakes

Grades, counties and measurement records statewide

Drive-time pages for other cities

The same tradeoff, measured from each metro

Nearby cities

From Salt Lake City

Nearest A: 29 min

From Omaha

Nearest B: 1 hr 6 min

From Kansas City

Nearest B: 21 min

From Oklahoma City

Nearest B: 3 hr 54 min

From Des Moines

Nearest A: 17 min

From Phoenix

Nearest B: 25 min

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Chatfield Reservoir in Jefferson County, Colorado. It grades B and the drive is 35 min, or 18.4 road miles. It is also the closest graded lake of any kind.

Not longer at all. The closest lake to Denver is also the closest one grading A or B, so the cleaner water costs no extra driving.

12 of the 40 lakes here have a public access point on the record, and the closest is Chatfield Reservoir, 35 min away, grading B. The rest of the table shows "Not recorded" where no access point was documented, which is not the same as no access — check with the managing agency before you trailer a boat.

By road, from downtown Denver to the nearest public road at each lake, over the OpenStreetMap road network. They are free-flow times: no traffic, no time of day, no stops. Treat them as the floor, and add for rush hour and for the last stretch to the water.

No. The letter summarises years of phosphorus, nitrogen, algae and turbidity measurements — it describes the lake, not this afternoon. A beach closure, a bloom, or a heavy rain can change conditions on an A lake overnight. Check the lake's own page for its measurement record, and check the managing agency for current advisories before you get in.

Stay by the water, not by the highway

Cabins, hotels and rentals around Chatfield Reservoir in Jefferson County — the closest lake to Denver that grades B. 35 min from downtown.

Top-rated places to stay near Chatfield Reservoir

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