40 graded lakes within 4 hr of downtown
Driving from Des Moines to a lake worth swimming in
Grays Lake is the closest graded water to Des Moines, 6 min away, and it grades F. Terra Park Lake grades A and takes 17 min — 11 min more in the car, each way, for water that clears the bar.
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.
Closer, or cleaner — the whole ladder
40 lakes, sorted by drive time from downtown Des Moines. Letters in range: 6 A, 3 B, 4 C, 12 D, 15 F. The furthest entry is Yenruogis Pond at 2 hr 5 min.
| Drive | Lake | Grade | Road miles | County | Size | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 min | Grays Lake | F | 2.1 | Polk County, IA | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 11 min | Easter Lake | D | 5.2 | Polk County, IA | 218 ac | ✓ Public |
| 16 min | Fort des Moines Park Pond | F | 5.9 | Polk County, IA | 12 ac | Not recorded |
| 17 min | Terra Park Lake | A | 8.3 | Polk County, IA | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 19 min | Blue Heron Lake | F | 8.9 | Polk County, IA | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 24 min | Lake Petocka | C | 15 | Polk County, IA | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 26 min | Dale Maffitt Reservoir | A | 12.7 | Dallas County, IA | 230 ac | Not recorded |
| 29 min | Thomas Mitchell Lake | C | 15 | Polk County, IA | 4 ac | Not recorded |
| 32 min | Big Creek Lake | F | 18.7 | Polk County, IA | 885 ac | ✓ Public |
| 44 min | Hooper Pond Lake | D | 24.4 | Warren County, IA | 45 ac | ✓ Public |
| 45 min | Beaver Lake | F | 34.1 | Dallas County, IA | 34 ac | ✓ Public |
| 47 min | Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake | A | 37.6 | Story County, IA | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 52 min | Cedar Lake | F | 35.8 | Madison County, IA | 84 ac | Not recorded |
| 55 min | Roberts Creek Lake | F | 39.3 | Marion County, IA | 296 ac | ✓ Public |
| 56 min | Hickory Grove Lake | D | 42.8 | Story County, IA | 107 ac | Not recorded |
| 58 min | West Lake Osceola | D | 48 | Clarke County, IA | 306 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 3 min | East Lake Osceola | F | 50.3 | Clarke County, IA | 13 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 6 min | Mariposa Lake | B | 45.2 | Jasper County, IA | 19 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 8 min | Meadow Lake | F | 53.9 | Adair County, IA | 42 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 12 min | Sand Lake | A | 54.3 | Marshall County, IA | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 16 min | Don Williams Lake | F | 54.8 | Boone County, IA | 160 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 20 min | Green Castle Lake | C | 59.2 | Marshall County, IA | 17 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 22 min | Nodaway Lake | D | 62.2 | Adair County, IA | 27 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 22 min | Thayer Lake | F | 63.6 | Union County, IA | 14 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 26 min | Red Haw Lake | F | 56.3 | Lucas County, IA | 93 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 27 min | Slipbluff Lake | A | 75.4 | Decatur County, IA | 18 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 31 min | Ellis Lake | F | 56.2 | Lucas County, IA | 80 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 31 min | Springbrook Lake | D | 57.2 | Guthrie County, IA | 12 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 32 min | Morris Lake | F | 56.4 | Lucas County, IA | 155 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 33 min | Twelve Mile Lake | F | 74.1 | Union County, IA | 633 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 34 min | Mormon Trail Lake | B | 71.4 | Adair County, IA | 33 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 35 min | Three Mile Lake | D | 73 | Union County, IA | 880 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 45 min | Otter Creek Lake | D | 76.3 | Tama County, IA | 60 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 45 min | Hawthorn Lake | D | 79.8 | Mahaska County, IA | 160 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 52 min | Cold Springs Lake | D | 90.4 | Cass County, IA | 16 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 53 min | Loch Ayr Lake | D | 92.4 | Ringgold County, IA | 78 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 56 min | Bob White Lake | B | 71.3 | Wayne County, IA | 104 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 57 min | Rathbun Lake | C | 81.7 | Appanoose County, IA | 11,013 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 59 min | Lake Cornelia | D | 94.7 | Wright County, IA | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 2 hr 5 min | Yenruogis Pond | A | 87.6 | Keokuk County, IA | Not recorded | Not recorded |
What the numbers are, and are not
Drive times and road miles are one-way road routing from downtown Des Moines 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 Des Moines
Nearby cities
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Terra Park Lake in Polk County, Iowa. It grades A and the drive is 17 min, or 8.3 road miles. The closest graded lake of any kind is Grays Lake at 6 min, and it grades F.
11 min each way. Grays Lake is 6 min out and grades F; Terra Park Lake is 17 min out and grades A.
20 of the 40 lakes here have a public access point on the record, and the closest is Grays Lake, 6 min away, grading F. 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 Des Moines 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 Terra Park Lake in Polk County — the closest lake to Des Moines that grades A. 17 min from downtown.
Top-rated places to stay near Terra Park Lake
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