What are oligotrophic lakes in Utah?

25 oligotrophic lakes in Utah. Low nutrients, clear water, excellent for swimming.

What does oligotrophic mean?

Low nutrients, clear water, excellent for swimming.

Oligotrophic Lakes in Utah

An oligotrophic lake is what most people picture when they think of pristine northern lake country: clarity to depth, no algal scum, cold water that holds dissolved oxygen all the way to the bottom even in August. Across Utah, 25 lakes register as oligotrophic — 0% of them break 50 feet of depth, which is the structural condition that underwrites the trophic class. Without depth and a low-nutrient watershed, oligotrophy is hard to sustain.

Oligotrophic lakes almost always carry the lowest phosphorus and chlorophyll-a readings on record, since the same low-nutrient conditions produce both the trophic class and the clear water.

#	Lake	County	Clarity	Depth	TSI
1	Flaming Gorge Reservoir Antelope Flat	Daggett	25.3 ft	-	31
2	Flaming Gorge Reservoir	Daggett	31.8 ft	-	30
3	Starvation Reservoir	Duchesne	11.2 ft	-	38
4	Recapture Reservoir	San Juan	8.9 ft	-	42
5	Little Dell Reservoir	Salt Lake	14.8 ft	-	36
6	Red Fleet Reservoir	Uintah	5.9 ft	-	45
7	Silver Lake Flat Reservoir	Utah	10.5 ft	-	37
8	Settlement Canyon Reservoir	Tooele	8.5 ft	-	39
9	Lake Mary	Salt Lake	26.9 ft	-	26
10	Millsite Reservoir	Emery	10.5 ft	-	43
11	Newton Reservoir	Cache	15.4 ft	-	42
12	Mantua Reservoir N	Box Elder	3 ft	-	46
13	Third Dam Lake	Cache	4.3 ft	-	42
14	Quail Creek Reservoir	Washington	14.6 ft	-	33
15	Ferron Reservoir	Sanpete	19 ft	-	34
16	Posey Lake	Garfield	16.4 ft	-	39
17	Palisade Lake	Sanpete	5.1 ft	-	44
18	Tropic Reservoir	Garfield	12.3 ft	-	34
19	Lake Powell Off Cha Canyon	San Juan	13.1 ft	-	38
20	Lake Powell Off Davis Gulch	Kane	15.4 ft	-	39
21	Lyman Lake	Summit	19.7 ft	-	37
22	Causey Reservoir	Weber	15.1 ft	-	36
23	Jordanelle Reservoir	Wasatch	8.2 ft	-	44
24	Strawberry Reservoir Bryants Fk T	Wasatch	15.6 ft	-	41
25	Strawberry Reservoir Narrows T	Wasatch	17.1 ft	-	42

All oligotrophic lakes →Minnesota version →Wisconsin version →Illinois version →Michigan version →Iowa version →Ohio version →Pennsylvania version →New York version →Missouri version →Indiana version →North Dakota version →South Dakota version →Florida version →Colorado version →North Carolina version →Vermont version →Texas version →Oregon version →Arkansas version →Oklahoma version →Kansas version →Nebraska version →Nevada version →Arizona version →Idaho version →Montana version →New Mexico version →Tennessee version →Alabama version →Virginia version →Kentucky version →Washington version →Wyoming version →Georgia version →Massachusetts version →Ontario version →Québec version →Nova Scotia version →British Columbia version →Newfoundland and Labrador version →All Utah lakes →

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.