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

40 graded lakes within 4 hr of downtown

Driving from Omaha to a lake worth swimming in

Lake Manawa is the closest graded water to Omaha, 22 min away, and it grades F. Willow Lake grades B and takes 1 hr 6 min — 44 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.

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

Closest water

FLake Manawa

22 min

9.8 road miles · Pottawattamie County, IA

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

Closest A

ALittle Sioux Park Lake

2 hr 14 min

99.9 road miles · Woodbury County, IA

1 hr 52 min further than the closest lake.

Closest B

BWillow Lake

1 hr 6 min

47.1 road miles · Harrison County, IA

1 hr 8 min closer than the nearest A.

Closest public access

FLake Manawa

22 min

9.8 road miles · Pottawattamie County, IA

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 Omaha. Letters in range: 2 A, 4 B, 2 C, 14 D, 18 F. Some of the best water is over a state line — this list crosses into Iowa, Missouri. The furthest entry is Dale Maffitt Reservoir at 2 hr 32 min.

Drive	Lake	Grade	Road miles	County	Size	Access
22 min	Lake Manawa	F	9.8	Pottawattamie County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
23 min	Prairie Queen Lake	D	15.3	Sarpy County, NE	125 ac	✓ Public
24 min	Willow Creek Reservoir	F	15.9	Sarpy County, NE	Not recorded	Not recorded
36 min	Arrowhead Lake	F	27.6	Pottawattamie County, IA	16 ac	Not recorded
44 min	Jenny Newman Lake	D	31.5	Cass County, NE	4 ac	Not recorded
54 min	Desoto Bend Lake	F	30.3	Harrison County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
58 min	Lake Wanahoo	D	39.3	Saunders County, NE	662 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 6 min	Willow Lake	B	47.1	Harrison County, IA	19 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 9 min	Summit Lake	F	47.6	Burt County, NE	193 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 14 min	Cold Springs Lake	D	51.3	Cass County, IA	16 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 14 min	Prairie Rose Lake	F	55.9	Shelby County, IA	200 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 14 min	Blue Lake	F	63.3	Monona County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 17 min	Wildwood Lake	F	56.7	Lancaster County, NE	107 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 22 min	Meadowlark Lake	F	60.6	Seward County, NE	55 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 23 min	Pierce Creek Lake	F	58.3	Page County, IA	38 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 25 min	Oldham Lake	C	63	Monona County, IA	16 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 27 min	Hedgefield Lake	F	70.1	Lancaster County, NE	44 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 28 min	Manteno Lake	D	62.3	Shelby County, IA	4 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 32 min	Nelson Lake	F	61.7	Crawford County, IA	11 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 33 min	Viking Lake	F	64	Montgomery County, IA	148 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 33 min	Littlefield Lake	F	79.3	Audubon County, IA	69 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 34 min	Lake Anita	F	79.2	Cass County, IA	171 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 35 min	Browns Lake	F	83.4	Woodbury County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 36 min	Oxbow Trails Reservoir	D	73.3	Butler County, NE	43 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 38 min	Snyder Bend Lake	D	85	Woodbury County, IA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 44 min	Yellow Smoke Lake	D	71.7	Crawford County, IA	38 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 51 min	Kirkman'S Cove Lake	D	92.1	Richardson County, NE	155 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 53 min	Burchard Lake	F	90.8	Pawnee County, NE	144 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 54 min	Mormon Trail Lake	B	74.2	Adair County, IA	33 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 58 min	Binder Lake	D	81	Adams County, IA	79 ac	Not recorded
2 hr	Lake Icaria	F	80.7	Adams County, IA	700 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 2 min	Kramper Lake	C	100.4	Dakota County, NE	226 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 9 min	Nodaway Lake	D	106	Adair County, IA	27 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 11 min	Moorehead Lake	D	96.6	Ida County, IA	11 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 12 min	Bilby Ranch Lake	D	98.6	Nodaway County, MO	110 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 14 min	Little Sioux Park Lake	A	99.9	Woodbury County, IA	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 14 min	Springbrook Lake	D	108.8	Guthrie County, IA	12 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 22 min	Skyview Lake	B	114.8	Madison County, NE	52 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 26 min	Arrowhead Lake	B	101	Sac County, IA	110 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 32 min	Dale Maffitt Reservoir	A	134.2	Dallas County, IA	230 ac	Not recorded

What the numbers are, and are not

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

All Nebraska lakes

Grades, counties and measurement records statewide

Drive-time pages for other cities

The same tradeoff, measured from each metro

Nearby cities

From Des Moines

Nearest A: 17 min

From Kansas City

Nearest B: 21 min

From Oklahoma City

Nearest B: 3 hr 54 min

From St. Louis

Nearest A: 1 hr 1 min

From Chicago

Nearest A: 32 min

From Dallas

Nearest B: 1 hr 52 min

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Willow Lake in Harrison County, Iowa. It grades B and the drive is 1 hr 6 min, or 47.1 road miles. The closest graded lake of any kind is Lake Manawa at 22 min, and it grades F.

44 min each way. Lake Manawa is 22 min out and grades F; Willow Lake is 1 hr 6 min out and grades B.

19 of the 40 lakes here have a public access point on the record, and the closest is Lake Manawa, 22 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 Omaha 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 Willow Lake in Harrison County — the closest lake to Omaha that grades B. 1 hr 6 min from downtown.

Top-rated places to stay near Willow Lake

Availability and prices from Stay22 partners (Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia). We may earn a commission from bookings, at no extra cost to you.

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