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 Richmond to a lake worth swimming in

Ut To Chk Lake is the closest lake with water-quality readings to Richmond, 25 min away. Diascund Reservoir Off Dam has clear, low-nutrient readings and takes 48 min, 23 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

Ut To Chk Lake

25 min

13.5 road miles · Hanover County, VA

The shortest drive on this page.

Closest clear, low-nutrient water

Diascund Reservoir Off Dam

48 min

34.3 road miles · New Kent County, VA

23 min further than the closest lake.

Closest public access

Diascund Reservoir Off Dam

48 min

34.3 road miles · New Kent County, VA

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 Richmond. 9 of them have clear, low-nutrient readings. Some of the best water is over a state line — this list crosses into North Carolina. The furthest entry is Silver Lake at 2 hr 30 min.

Drive	Lake	Road miles	County	Size	Access
25 min	Ut To Chk Lake	13.5	Hanover County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
31 min	Swift Creek Reservoir	19.5	Chesterfield County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
37 min	Swift Creek Lake	18.5	Chesterfield County, VA	150 ac	Not recorded
48 min	Diascund Reservoir Off Dam	34.3	New Kent County, VA	1,100 ac	✓ Public
49 min	Lake Chesdin	28.3	Chesterfield County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
54 min	Chickahominy Lake	31.8	Charles City County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr	Powhatan Lake	36.1	Powhatan County, VA	35 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 4 min	Chickahominy Reservoir	36	Charles City County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 6 min	Cohoke Millpond	49	King William County, VA	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 12 min	Lee Hall Reservoir	61.3	Newport News city County, VA	390 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 13 min	Bryants Pond	49.1	Sussex County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 15 min	Motts Run Reservoir	60.4	Spotsylvania County, VA	160 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 18 min	Upper Lake	62.8	Stafford County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 23 min	Hunting Run Reservoir	66.7	Spotsylvania County, VA	443 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 24 min	Nottoway Lake	51.7	Nottoway County, VA	170 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 25 min	Hunting Run Reservior Lake	66	Spotsylvania County, VA	443 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 27 min	Sandy River Lake	60.5	Prince Edward County, VA	740 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 28 min	Curtis Lake	67.9	Stafford County, VA	95 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 29 min	Lake Anna	61.7	Spotsylvania County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 29 min	Great Creek Reservoir	71	Brunswick County, VA	238 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 32 min	Abel Lake	68.1	Stafford County, VA	185 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 34 min	Fluvanna Ruritan Lake	65.1	Fluvanna County, VA	60 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 35 min	Brunswick County Lake	65.1	Brunswick County, VA	160 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 38 min	Upper Branch of Terry'S Run Lake	67.9	Spotsylvania County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded
1 hr 40 min	Briery Creek Lake	71.1	Prince Edward County, VA	810 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 42 min	Smith Lake	74.3	Stafford County, VA	225 ac	Not recorded
1 hr 45 min	Lake Orange	72.5	Orange County, VA	120 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 50 min	Roanoke Rapids Lake	87.7	Halifax County, NC	4,600 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 50 min	Lake Gaston	91.3	Mecklenburg County, VA	Not recorded	✓ Public
1 hr 52 min	Totier Creek Reservoir	89.5	Albemarle County, VA	58 ac	✓ Public
1 hr 57 min	Burke Lake	94.8	Fairfax County, VA	223 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 1 min	Mountain Run Lake	92.9	Culpeper County, VA	75 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 2 min	Speights Run	83.6	Suffolk city County, VA	197 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 4 min	Lake Gaston	95	Northampton County, NC	20,300 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 5 min	Lake Culpeper	91.9	Culpeper County, VA	250 ac	✓ Public
2 hr 8 min	Lake Gaston	101.8	Warren County, NC	Not recorded	Not recorded
2 hr 11 min	Holiday Lake	85.7	Buckingham County, VA	111 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 11 min	John H Kerr Reservoir	105.9	Vance County, NC	Not recorded	✓ Public
2 hr 16 min	Coles Run Reservoir	107.5	Augusta County, VA	5 ac	Not recorded
2 hr 30 min	Silver Lake	128.4	Rockingham County, VA	Not recorded	Not recorded

What the numbers are, and are not

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

All Virginia lakes

Counties and measurement records statewide

Drive-time pages for other cities

The same tradeoff, measured from each metro

Nearby cities

From Raleigh

Nearest clear water: 1 hr 26 min

From Philadelphia

Nearest clear water: 24 min

From Pittsburgh

Nearest clear water: 1 hr 22 min

From Charlotte

Nearest clear water: 1 hr 45 min

From Buffalo

Nearest clear water: 2 hr 24 min

From Columbus

Nearest clear water: 51 min

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Diascund Reservoir Off Dam in New Kent County, Virginia. Its nutrient and algae readings are among the most favourable within reach, and the drive is 48 min, or 34.3 road miles. The closest lake of any kind with readings on record is Ut To Chk Lake at 25 min.

23 min each way. Ut To Chk Lake is 25 min out; Diascund Reservoir Off Dam, with the more favourable readings, is 48 min out.

20 of the 40 lakes here have a public access point on the record, and the closest is Diascund Reservoir Off Dam, 48 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 Richmond 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 Diascund Reservoir Off Dam in New Kent County, the closest lake to Richmond with the most favourable readings in range. 48 min from downtown.

Top-rated places to stay near Diascund Reservoir Off Dam

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