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

40 lakes with water-quality readings within 4 hr of downtown

Driving from Omaha to a lake worth swimming in

Lake Manawa is the closest lake with water-quality readings to Omaha, 22 min away. Willow Lake has clear, low-nutrient readings and takes 1 hr 6 min, 44 min more in the car, each way, for cleaner water.

Every lake below is ranked by how long the drive is, and each links to its own water-quality readings. Closest is not the same as cleanest, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

Closest water

Lake Manawa

22 min

9.8 road miles · Pottawattamie County, IA

The shortest drive on this page.

Closest clear, low-nutrient water

Willow Lake

1 hr 6 min

47.1 road miles · Harrison County, IA

44 min further than the closest lake.

Closest public access

Lake 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. 6 of them have clear, low-nutrient readings. 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	Road miles	County	Size	Access
22 min	Lake Manawa	9.8	Pottawattamie County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
23 min	Prairie Queen Lake	15.3	Sarpy County, NE	125 ac	✓ Public
24 min	Willow Creek Reservoir	15.9	Sarpy County, NE	Not recorded	Not recorded
36 min	Arrowhead Lake	27.6	Pottawattamie County, IA	16 ac	Not recorded
44 min	Jenny Newman Lake	31.5	Cass County, NE	4 ac	Not recorded
54 min	Desoto Bend Lake	30.3	Harrison County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
58 min	Lake Wanahoo	39.3	Saunders County, NE	662 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 6 min	Willow Lake	47.1	Harrison County, IA	19 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 9 min	Summit Lake	47.6	Burt County, NE	193 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 14 min	Cold Springs Lake	51.3	Cass County, IA	16 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 14 min	Prairie Rose Lake	55.9	Shelby County, IA	200 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 14 min	Blue Lake	63.3	Monona County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 17 min	Wildwood Lake	56.7	Lancaster County, NE	107 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 17 min	Pierce Creek Lake	58.3	Page County, IA	38 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 22 min	Meadowlark Lake	60.6	Seward County, NE	55 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 25 min	Oldham Lake	63	Monona County, IA	16 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 25 min	Viking Lake	64	Montgomery County, IA	148 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 27 min	Hedgefield Lake	70.1	Lancaster County, NE	44 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 28 min	Manteno Lake	62.3	Shelby County, IA	4 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 32 min	Nelson Lake	61.7	Crawford County, IA	11 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 33 min	Littlefield Lake	79.3	Audubon County, IA	69 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 34 min	Lake Anita	79.2	Cass County, IA	171 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 35 min	Browns Lake	83.4	Woodbury County, IA	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 36 min	Oxbow Trails Reservoir	73.3	Butler County, NE	43 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 38 min	Snyder Bend Lake	85	Woodbury County, IA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 44 min	Yellow Smoke Lake	71.7	Crawford County, IA	38 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 50 min	Binder Lake	81	Adams County, IA	79 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 51 min	Kirkman'S Cove Lake	92.1	Richardson County, NE	155 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 53 min	Lake Icaria	83.9	Adams County, IA	700 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 53 min	Burchard Lake	90.8	Pawnee County, NE	144 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 54 min	Mormon Trail Lake	74.2	Adair County, IA	33 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 2 min	Kramper Lake	100.4	Dakota County, NE	226 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 9 min	Nodaway Lake	106	Adair County, IA	27 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 11 min	Moorehead Lake	96.6	Ida County, IA	11 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 12 min	Bilby Ranch Lake	98.6	Nodaway County, MO	110 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 14 min	Little Sioux Park Lake	99.9	Woodbury County, IA	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 14 min	Springbrook Lake	108.8	Guthrie County, IA	12 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 22 min	Skyview Lake	114.8	Madison County, NE	52 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 26 min	Arrowhead Lake	101	Sac County, IA	110 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 32 min	Dale Maffitt Reservoir	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.

Each lake’s water-quality readings, phosphorus, nitrogen, chlorophyll-a and turbidity measured over years by state and federal agencies, are on its own page. They describe the lake’s record; they do not clear the water for a particular afternoon, and they say nothing about the beach, the boat ramp or the view. Lakes with no nutrient or algae reading on record are not listed here, because the water 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

Counties and measurement records statewide

Drive-time pages for other cities

The same tradeoff, measured from each metro

Nearby cities

From Des Moines

Nearest clear water: 17 min

From Kansas City

Nearest clear water: 21 min

From Oklahoma City

Nearest clear water: 3 hr 56 min

From St. Louis

Nearest clear water: 1 hr 1 min

From Chicago

Nearest clear water: 32 min

From Dallas

Nearest clear water: 1 hr 52 min

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Willow Lake in Harrison County, Iowa. Its nutrient and algae readings are among the most favourable within reach, and the drive is 1 hr 6 min, or 47.1 road miles. The closest lake of any kind with readings on record is Lake Manawa at 22 min.

44 min each way. Lake Manawa is 22 min out; Willow Lake, with the more favourable readings, is 1 hr 6 min out.

19 of the 40 lakes here have a public access point on the record, and the closest is Lake Manawa, 22 min away. 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 readings summarise years of phosphorus, nitrogen, algae and turbidity measurements; they describe the lake, not this afternoon. A beach closure, a bloom, or a heavy rain can change conditions overnight. Whether a lake is safe to swim in is a call for the state water agency and the county health department: 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 with the most favourable readings in range. 1 hr 6 min from downtown.

Top-rated places to stay near Willow Lake

Prices for Oct 16–18, 4 adults. Change dates on the map below.

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