40 graded lakes within 4 hr of downtown
Driving from Salt Lake City to a lake worth swimming in
Little Dell Reservoir is the closest graded water to Salt Lake City, 29 min away, and it grades A. 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.
Closer, or cleaner — the whole ladder
40 lakes, sorted by drive time from downtown Salt Lake City. Letters in range: 12 A, 1 B, 13 C, 12 D, 2 F. The furthest entry is Gsl Breach Lake at 2 hr 40 min.
| Drive | Lake | Grade | Road miles | County | Size | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 min | Little Dell Reservoir | A | 17.3 | Salt Lake County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 50 min | Settlement Canyon Reservoir | A | 36.5 | Tooele County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 51 min | Gsl Farmington Bay Outflow Lake | D | 38.7 | Davis County, UT | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 52 min | Lake Mary | A | 29.9 | Salt Lake County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 53 min | East Canyon Reservoir | C | 31.7 | Morgan County, UT | 684 ac | ✓ Public |
| 54 min | Jordanelle Reservoir | C | 42.8 | Wasatch County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 57 min | Grantsville Reservoir | A | 41.7 | Tooele County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 59 min | Tibble Fork Reservoir | C | 40 | Utah County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 3 min | Farmington Bay Lake | F | 43.4 | Davis County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 3 min | Willard Pond West End | D | 52.2 | Box Elder County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 3 min | Willard Pond East End | D | 52.3 | Box Elder County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 11 min | Salem Pond | A | 57.7 | Utah County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 12 min | Silver Lake Flat Reservoir | A | 43.7 | Utah County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 15 min | Causey Reservoir | B | 56.3 | Weber County, UT | 136 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 17 min | Mantua Reservoir N | A | 64 | Box Elder County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 30 min | Smith And Morehouse Reservoir | C | 57.4 | Summit County, UT | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 32 min | Mona Reservoir | C | 74.3 | Juab County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 33 min | Hyrum Reservoir | A | 78.6 | Cache County, UT | 480 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 34 min | Strawberry Reservoir Strawberry Bay T | C | 69.8 | Wasatch County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 46 min | Big East Lake | D | 72.2 | Utah County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 46 min | Cutler Reservoir | D | 88.4 | Cache County, UT | 5,460 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 51 min | Strawberry Reservoir Indian Creek Bay T | D | 81.2 | Wasatch County, UT | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 51 min | Third Dam Lake | A | 89.5 | Cache County, UT | 14 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 53 min | Strawberry Lake | C | 80.6 | Wasatch County, UT | 17,163 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 55 min | Strawberry Reservoir Narrows T | C | 80.8 | Wasatch County, UT | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 57 min | Bear R Bay Outflow Lake | C | 57.6 | Weber County, UT | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 57 min | Porcupine Reservoir | C | 91.6 | Cache County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 58 min | Willard Bay Reservoir | C | 52.2 | Box Elder County, UT | 9,950 ac | Not recorded |
| 2 hr | Newton Reservoir | A | 94.3 | Cache County, UT | 297 ac | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 6 min | Red Creek Reservoir | A | 96 | Duchesne County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 7 min | Scofield Reservoir | D | 105.9 | Carbon County, UT | 2,810 ac | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 17 min | Birch Creek Reservoir | D | 88.8 | Rich County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 21 min | Woodruff Creek Reservoir | D | 93.1 | Rich County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 22 min | Lower Gooseberry Reservoir | C | 106.4 | Sanpete County, UT | 52 ac | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 24 min | Yuba Reservoir Midway | F | 111.5 | Juab County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 24 min | Starvation Reservoir | A | 114.5 | Duchesne County, UT | 3,310 ac | ✓ Public |
| 2 hr 29 min | Cleveland Lake | C | 113.6 | Emery County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 32 min | Electric Lake | D | 116.4 | Emery County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 33 min | Whitney Reservoir | D | 94.4 | Summit County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 2 hr 40 min | Gsl Breach Lake | D | 90.8 | Box Elder County, UT | Not recorded | Not recorded |
What the numbers are, and are not
Drive times and road miles are one-way road routing from downtown Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City
Nearby cities
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Little Dell Reservoir in Salt Lake County, Utah. It grades A and the drive is 29 min, or 17.3 road miles. It is also the closest graded lake of any kind.
Not longer at all. The closest lake to Salt Lake City 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 Gsl Farmington Bay Outflow Lake, 51 min away, grading D. 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 Salt Lake City 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 Little Dell Reservoir in Salt Lake County — the closest lake to Salt Lake City that grades A. 29 min from downtown.
Top-rated places to stay near Little Dell Reservoir
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