40 graded lakes within 4 hr of downtown
Driving from St. Louis to a lake worth swimming in
Lafayette Park Lake is the closest graded water to St. Louis, 5 min away, and it grades D. Lake Wauwanoka grades A and takes 1 hr 1 min — 56 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.
Closer, or cleaner — the whole ladder
40 lakes, sorted by drive time from downtown St. Louis. Letters in range: 11 A, 1 B, 6 C, 8 D, 14 F. Some of the best water is over a state line — this list crosses into Illinois. The furthest entry is Lake Capri at 1 hr 30 min.
| Drive | Lake | Grade | Road miles | County | Size | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | Lafayette Park Lake | D | 1.7 | St. Louis city County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 10 min | Forest Park Pond | D | 5.8 | St. Louis city County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 14 min | Boathouse Lake | D | 7.9 | St. Louis city County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 21 min | Koeneman Park Lake | F | 9.8 | St. Louis County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 27 min | Spanish Lake | F | 14.2 | St. Louis County, MO | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 29 min | Simpson Park Lake | D | 17.1 | St. Louis County, MO | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 32 min | Mallard Lake | F | 20.6 | St. Louis County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 32 min | Fon-du-Lac Reservoir | F | 21.1 | Jefferson County, MO | 26 ac | Not recorded |
| 32 min | Creve Coeur Lake | F | 21.6 | St. Louis County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 53 min | Holiday Shores Lake | F | 33.5 | Madison County, IL | 345 ac | Not recorded |
| 54 min | Highland Silver Lake | F | 38.1 | Madison County, IL | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 54 min | L Ste Louise Lake | C | 38.1 | St. Charles County, MO | 70 ac | Not recorded |
| 59 min | Slm Side Channel Lake | F | 34.3 | St. Clair County, IL | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 1 min | Lake Wauwanoka | A | 41.7 | Jefferson County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 1 min | Lake Serene | D | 42.2 | Franklin County, MO | 65 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 1 min | Callaway Fork Lake | D | 43.9 | St. Charles County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 2 min | Lake Tishomingo | C | 40.3 | Jefferson County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 8 min | Lake Eleanor | C | 47.9 | Warren County, MO | 3 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 8 min | Nashville City Lake | F | 55.4 | Washington County, IL | 52 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 9 min | Sugar Hollow Lake | C | 48.2 | Warren County, MO | 17 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 9 min | Timberline Lakes | A | 54.5 | St. Francois County, MO | 42 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 11 min | Robin Hood Lake | D | 48.8 | Warren County, MO | 9 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 15 min | Sherwood Lake | A | 49.6 | Warren County, MO | 145 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 16 min | Governor Bond Lake | F | 57.5 | Bond County, IL | 900 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 19 min | Whippoorwill Lake | A | 55.7 | Warren County, MO | 13 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 19 min | Goose Creek Lake | A | 59.4 | Ste. Genevieve County, MO | 379 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 20 min | Castlenovo Lake | A | 55.9 | Warren County, MO | 10 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 21 min | Fawn Lake | C | 56.9 | Franklin County, MO | 25 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 22 min | Sparta Northwest Lake | F | 50.5 | Randolph County, IL | Not recorded | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 22 min | Coulterville Lake | F | 51.4 | Randolph County, IL | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 22 min | Red Fox Lake | C | 56.2 | Warren County, MO | 13 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 22 min | Innsbrook Lake | A | 56.4 | Warren County, MO | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 24 min | Lake Lucern | B | 57.1 | Warren County, MO | 42 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 24 min | Carlyle Lake | F | 58.7 | Clinton County, IL | 24,580 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 24 min | Lincoln Lake | A | 61.1 | Lincoln County, MO | 48 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 26 min | Lake Konstanz | A | 58.6 | Warren County, MO | 19 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 26 min | Greenfield Lake | D | 59.2 | Greene County, IL | 52 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 27 min | Lou Yaeger Lake | F | 63.4 | Montgomery County, IL | 1,410 ac | ✓ Public |
| 1 hr 29 min | Alpine Lake | A | 59.4 | Warren County, MO | 325 ac | Not recorded |
| 1 hr 30 min | Lake Capri | A | 65.6 | St. Francois County, MO | 112 ac | Not recorded |
What the numbers are, and are not
Drive times and road miles are one-way road routing from downtown St. Louis 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 St. Louis
Nearby cities
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Lake Wauwanoka in Jefferson County, Missouri. It grades A and the drive is 1 hr 1 min, or 41.7 road miles. The closest graded lake of any kind is Lafayette Park Lake at 5 min, and it grades D.
56 min each way. Lafayette Park Lake is 5 min out and grades D; Lake Wauwanoka is 1 hr 1 min out and grades A.
9 of the 40 lakes here have a public access point on the record, and the closest is Spanish Lake, 27 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 St. Louis 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 Lake Wauwanoka in Jefferson County — the closest lake to St. Louis that grades A. 1 hr 1 min from downtown.
Top-rated places to stay near Lake Wauwanoka
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