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

40 graded lakes within 4 hr of downtown

Driving from Detroit to a lake worth swimming in

Pleasant Lake is the closest graded water to Detroit, 42 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

BPleasant Lake

42 min

27.7 road miles · Oakland County, MI

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

Closest A

ASylvan Lake

44 min

32.9 road miles · Oakland County, MI

2 min further than the closest lake.

Closest B

BPleasant Lake

42 min

27.7 road miles · Oakland County, MI

2 min closer than the nearest A.

Closest public access

AOre Lake

1 hr 4 min

49.1 road miles · Livingston County, MI

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 Detroit. Letters in range: 15 A, 8 B, 8 C, 8 D, 1 F. Some of the best water is over a state line — this list crosses into Ohio. The furthest entry is Auglaize R Lake at 2 hr 40 min.

Drive	Lake	Grade	Road miles	County	Size	Access
42 min	Pleasant Lake	B	27.7	Oakland County, MI	45 ac	Not recorded
44 min	Sylvan Lake	A	32.9	Oakland County, MI	387 ac	Not recorded
48 min	Cranberry Lake	B	41.8	Oakland County, MI	24 ac	Not recorded
52 min	Twin Lakes	A	33.1	Oakland County, MI	13 ac	Not recorded
53 min	Indianwood Lake	D	40.7	Oakland County, MI	49 ac	Not recorded
57 min	Cedar Is Lake	B	38.1	Oakland County, MI	Not recorded	Not recorded
57 min	Tull Lake	C	40.4	Oakland County, MI	81 ac	Not recorded
1 hr	Crystal Lake	A	48.2	Washtenaw County, MI	13 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 2 min	Glacier Lake	A	50.4	Washtenaw County, MI	15 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 4 min	Ore Lake	A	49.1	Livingston County, MI	229 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 10 min	Little Portage Lake	B	55.5	Washtenaw County, MI	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 14 min	Cordley Lake	A	57.2	Livingston County, MI	45 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 14 min	Tamarack Lake	B	57.5	Livingston County, MI	19 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 15 min	Whitewood Lake	B	57.8	Livingston County, MI	68 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 15 min	North Lake	A	58.5	Washtenaw County, MI	224 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 18 min	Clear Lake	A	65.6	Jackson County, MI	130 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 21 min	Sugarloaf Lake	A	65.9	Washtenaw County, MI	280 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 26 min	Flint Park Lake	C	74.5	Genesee County, MI	16 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 34 min	Barnes Lake	A	67.6	Lapeer County, MI	110 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 43 min	Round Lake	D	75.8	Shiawassee County, MI	11 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 47 min	Lake Lansing	A	84.2	Ingham County, MI	453 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 50 min	Devils Lake	A	78	Lenawee County, MI	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 51 min	Fremont Reservoir	C	91.5	Sandusky County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 52 min	Crystal Lake	A	82	Hillsdale County, MI	125 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 53 min	Hemingway Lake	B	79.5	Lapeer County, MI	65 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 55 min	Round Lake	A	79.7	Lenawee County, MI	507 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 55 min	Manitou Lake	C	89.5	Shiawassee County, MI	80 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 13 min	Maumee R Upst Independence Dam Lake	D	109.7	Defiance County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 17 min	Tiffin R Lake	C	113.4	Defiance County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 23 min	Findlay Reservoir	C	110.7	Hancock County, OH	Not recorded	✓ Public
2 hr 27 min	Indian Lake	C	129	Kalamazoo County, MI	Not recorded	✓ Public
2 hr 29 min	Boot Lake	D	128.6	Kalamazoo County, MI	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 31 min	Ottawa Reservoir	D	121.7	Putnam County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 36 min	Lost Creek Reservoir	B	135.4	Allen County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 37 min	Twin Lakes Reservoir	D	135.2	Allen County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 37 min	Metzger Reservoir	D	135.8	Allen County, OH	Not recorded	✓ Public
2 hr 38 min	Ferguson Reservoir	C	137.1	Allen County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 38 min	Little Long Lake	A	137.2	Barry County, MI	168 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 39 min	Lake Diane	D	126.5	Hillsdale County, MI	290 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 40 min	Auglaize R Lake	F	128.7	Paulding County, OH	Not recorded	Not recorded

What the numbers are, and are not

Drive times and road miles are one-way road routing from downtown Detroit 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 Detroit

Every lake within 50 miles of Detroit

Ranked by grade, including lakes with no letter yet

All Michigan lakes

Grades, counties and measurement records statewide

Drive-time pages for other cities

The same tradeoff, measured from each metro

Nearby cities

From Cleveland

Nearest B: 1 hr 55 min

From Columbus

Nearest A: 51 min

From Cincinnati

Nearest A: 2 hr 26 min

From Pittsburgh

Nearest B: 3 hr 43 min

From Chicago

Nearest A: 32 min

From Milwaukee

Nearest B: 33 min

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Pleasant Lake in Oakland County, Michigan. It grades B and the drive is 42 min, or 27.7 road miles. It is also the closest graded lake of any kind.

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

9 of the 40 lakes here have a public access point on the record, and the closest is Ore Lake, 1 hr 4 min away, grading A. 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 Detroit 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 Pleasant Lake in Oakland County — the closest lake to Detroit that grades B. 42 min from downtown.

Top-rated places to stay near Pleasant Lake

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