Dillon Reservoir, Colorado

Denver Water's largest storage reservoir, built by flooding the original town of Dillon in 1961 -- a high-altitude drinking-water lake with no private docks, a swimming ban, and a ski-resort-driven surrounding economy.

The Lake at a Glance

Dillon Reservoir genuinely spans 3,233 acres in Summit County, surrounded by the towns of Dillon, Frisco, and Silverthorne, with Breckenridge and Keystone nearby as major economic and tourism drivers even though neither sits directly on the water. Built between 1961 and 1963 as an earth-fill dam rising 231 feet above the Blue River streambed, the reservoir genuinely functions as Denver Water's largest storage facility, supplying roughly 40% of its total water to 1.3 to 1.5 million Front Range customers.

The original town of Dillon genuinely had to be relocated before the valley could be flooded, with residents required to vacate by September 15, 1961, and 327 graves genuinely moved to a new cemetery -- a real, well-documented history that gives this reservoir a genuinely distinctive "underwater ghost town" narrative unlike most lakes covered on this site.

What Buyers Need to Know First

This reservoir genuinely has no private residential docks anywhere on it -- only public marina infrastructure through the Dillon Marina and Frisco Bay Marina -- since the shoreline is genuinely almost entirely Denver Water and White River National Forest land rather than privately platted lakefront parcels.

Full-body swimming remains genuinely banned to protect drinking water quality, though a 2025 rule change now genuinely allows wading from shore, and buyers should genuinely understand this real water-contact restriction before assuming standard lake-recreation access.

2026 genuinely brought notably low water levels, with the reservoir peaking at just 80% capacity in June, the second-lowest peak on record since 1983, and Denver Water genuinely declared a Stage 1 drought with mandatory outdoor watering limits.

Summit County genuinely runs one of Colorado's most restrictive short-term rental regimes, with zone-based caps and active waitlists in Frisco and parts of Silverthorne and Breckenridge, directly tied to a genuinely serious workforce-housing affordability crisis.

Colorado genuinely levies a flat 4.40% state income tax for 2026 alongside one of the country's lowest statewide effective property tax rates near 0.50%, a real combination buyers should weigh against Summit County's specific sales and lodging tax structure.

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