DEER
CREEK
What Deer Creek is
A working reservoir first and a recreation area second. That order explains almost everything about how it is managed.
Deer Creek Dam sits on the Provo River where it enters Provo Canyon. Reclamation describes it as "a zoned earthfill structure 235 feet high with a crest length of 1,304 feet" containing "2,810,000 cubic yards of material", forming "a reservoir of 152,570 acre-foot capacity."
Utah State Parks records that "Construction started in the spring of 1938 and was finished 17 years later in 1955, although the water was available for use as early as 1941."
The reservoir is "approximately six miles long with a maximum surface area of 2,965 acres" and reaches a "maximum depth of 137 feet". Dividing published capacity by published surface area gives a mean depth of about 51 feet. Most of this reservoir is far shallower than its headline number.
It is operated by the Provo River Water Users Association as part of Reclamation's Provo River Project.
- Municipal and industrial water. A "major municipal and industrial water supply" for the Wasatch Front.
- Irrigation. An "important irrigation supply for the Wasatch Front."
- Power. The plant "generates power for its own use while providing revenues through power sales to offset the Association's operation, maintenance and Project repayment costs."
- Recreation. Real, heavily used, and secondary to the three above.
Recreation being secondary is not a technicality. It is why the pool swings through the season, why the dam area is restricted, and why water rules here are stricter than at a lake nobody drinks from.
Where the water comes from
Three river systems feed this reservoir. One of them arrives through a mountain.
The reservoir is filled with "water diverted from the Provo, Weber and Duchesne Rivers under Project and Association water rights." Only the first flows here naturally.
- Provo River. The native watercourse. The reservoir sits directly on it.
- Weber-Provo Diversion Canal. "The canal has a capacity of 1,000 cubic feet per second and a length of 9 miles."
- Duchesne Tunnel. "The 600-cubic-foot-per-second Duchesne Tunnel... is 6 miles long." Bored through the Uinta Mountains.
The Duchesne Tunnel is a trans-basin diversion. Water that would have drained east instead arrives on the Wasatch Front side of the range.
Where the water goes
The part most visitors do not know, and the reason a dropped battery here is not the same as a dropped battery somewhere else.
Water leaves through "the Salt Lake Aqueduct, a 69-inch-diameter concrete pipeline 41.7 miles long, with a capacity of 150 cubic feet per second."
| Served | Verbatim from the source |
|---|---|
| Cities | "an assured domestic water supply for Salt Lake City, Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, Lindon, American Fork, and Lehi, Utah." |
| People and volume | "An average annual amount of 73,454 acre-feet is delivered to 479,221 persons." |
The project "provides a supplemental water supply for the irrigation of 48,156 acres of highly developed farmlands."
The basin
How 2,965 acres at the surface shrink as you go down.
Three published figures fully constrain this basin: surface area, maximum depth and total capacity. Fitting the standard hypsographic curve gives an exponent of 1.6624, and that curve integrates back to the published 152,570 acre-feet with zero error.
The resulting mean-to-max depth ratio of 0.38 sits between a cone and a paraboloid, which is what a drowned river valley should look like.
| Depth | Area remaining | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 ft | 2,281 acres | 77% |
| 40 ft | 1,670 acres | 56% |
| 60 ft | 1,138 acres | 38% |
| 80 ft | 690 acres | 23% |
| 100 ft | 336 acres | 11% |
| 120 ft | 92 acres | 3% |
The pool does not sit still. PRWUA publishes live elevation and storage as provisional data, and USGS gauge 10159000 at Charleston holds the long daily storage record, storage only with no elevation parameter.
Modelled figures, not a bathymetric survey. No open bathymetric survey of Deer Creek exists. Contours here are geometric, so the deep zone renders mid-lake when the real deep water is at the dam.
Water quality
A reservoir people drink from, carrying a formal pollutant budget.
Deer Creek carries a state-approved Total Phosphorus TMDL, meaning regulators formally identified it as impaired and set a pollutant budget for it.
Research on this reservoir has examined bottom sediment as an internal phosphorus source that can be resuspended and released, surveyed using sonar and GPS.
That is the context for anything that ends up underwater here.
Recreation and access
Deer Creek State Park runs the shoreline. Open 6 AM to 10 PM.
"With 2,965 acres of water and predictable canyon winds, Deer Creek is a water sports haven."
"Courtesy boat docks have a 15-minute limit for loading and unloading."
The park brochure names five day-use areas.
Main Park Area
Primary park access.
Rainbow Bay Day-Use Area
Day-use access.
Island Day-Use Area
Day-use access.
Charleston Day-Use Area
Upper end of the reservoir.
Provo River Area
Below the dam.
| Campground | Detail | Nightly |
|---|---|---|
| Chokecherry | "40 campsites for RVs with full hookups and tents" | $60 at 50 amp, $50 at 30 amp |
| Great Horned Owl | "23 primitive campsites for RVs and tents, no hookups" | $40 |
| Fox Den | Listed in current park fees. Site count not stated in the brochure. | $60 |
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Day-use, summer | "$20 per day per vehicle 7 days a week", March 19 to October 20 |
| Day-use, winter | "$15 seven days a week. Utah Seniors 65 and older are $10", October 21 to March 18 |
| Extra vehicle | "$30 camping rate per night" |
Fees and dates change. Confirm on the park's current conditions page before you go.
Fishing
You do not need a boat to fish Deer Creek. Five public day-use areas give shoreline access, and every one of the six named fish is present reservoir-wide.
All five day-use areas named by the park are reachable without launching anything. Two things about this basin matter more to a shore angler than to a boat angler.
- The shelf is where the fish are anyway. At 20 feet down the reservoir still holds 2,281 of its 2,965 surface acres. The shallow margin is not a leftover, it is most of the lake.
- The pool moves. Supply outranks recreation, so the waterline shifts through the season. A bank spot that fished well in June can be dry ground or a long wade later on.
- Charleston is the shallow end. It sits at the inflow, warms first, and is also where DEQ has issued its most severe bloom advisories.
Day-use entry is "$20 per day per vehicle 7 days a week" in summer and "$15 seven days a week. Utah Seniors 65 and older are $10" in winter.
"Deer Creek offers five species of sport fish including: rainbow and brown trout, large and smallmouth bass, walleye and yellow perch."
| Fish | Where it tends to hold | Common angler approach | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow trout | Open water and shallower shelf, deeper as summer warms | Bait off the bottom, small spoons and spinners, trolled flies | |
| Brown trout | Structure, inlets, rocky edges | Minnow-imitating lures, streamers, near shore in low light | |
| Smallmouth bass | Rocky shoreline and points | Tube jigs, small crankbaits, drop-shot plastics | |
| Largemouth bass | Weedier shallow bays | Soft plastics, spinnerbaits, topwater early and late | |
| Walleye | Deeper edges, low light | Jigs tipped with bait, bottom-bouncing crawler rigs, deep crankbaits | |
| Yellow perch | Schooled over the shelf, near bottom | Small jigs, perch meat or worm |
Utah fishing regulations, limits and seasons change annually. We deliberately do not reproduce them here, because a stale limit on a web page is worse than no limit at all. The Division of Wildlife Resources is the only current source.
Utah DWR fishing information →
If a bloom advisory is active, DEQ's guidance on fish is tier-specific and worth reading before you keep anything.
Boating
Two public ramps, one marina concession, an annual course every boater has to take, and a list of gear the state says has to be aboard.
Two requirements get confused constantly. One applies to everybody, every year. The other only applies to young PWC operators.
- Every boater, every year. "All boaters – whether you are a Utah resident or
nonresident – must take the annual Utah mussel-aware boater course."
Free, online, has to be redone annually.
Take the mussel-aware course → - Youth on a personal watercraft. "Utah requires a mandatory youth certification
course for operating Personal Watercraft (PWC)" for ages 12 to 17.
The state lists a free option through the BoatUS Foundation.
Free PWC certification course → - PWC supervision. A person "at least 12 years of age or older but under 16 years of age may operate a personal watercraft provided he: (a) is under the direct supervision of a person who is at least 18 years of age."
Straight from the Utah Boating Act, with section numbers so you can check them. For a list filtered to your own boat, use the picker at the top of this section.
| Requirement | Verbatim | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Life jackets | "each vessel shall have, for each person on board, one wearable personal flotation device that is approved for the type of use by the commandant of the United States Coast Guard." | 73-18-8(1) |
| Throwable device | "For vessels 16 feet or more in length, there shall also be on board one throwable personal flotation device." | 73-18-8(1)(e) |
| Fire extinguisher | "Each vessel shall have fire extinguishing equipment on board." | 73-18-8(4) |
| Navigation lights | "The operator of a vessel operated between sunset and sunrise shall display lighted navigation lights approved by the division." | 73-18-8(2) |
| Backfire flame arrestor | "Any inboard gasoline engine shall be equipped with a carburetor backfire flame control device." | 73-18-8(5) |
| Ventilation | "If a vessel is not entirely open and it carries or uses any flammable or toxic fluid in any enclosure for any purpose, the vessel shall be equipped with an efficient natural or mechanical ventilation system." | 73-18-8(3) |
| Ski observer | "The operator of a vessel may not tow a water skier or a person on another device: (a) unless an onboard observer, who is at least eight years of age, is designated by the operator to watch the person being towed." | 73-18-15.1(14) |
The wind is why people get in trouble here
The park sells the lake on "predictable canyon winds". Predictable is not gentle. It builds through the afternoon and catches small craft, paddleboards and inflatables furthest from the ramp.
Cold water at 5,400 feet
The park sits at 5,400 feet. Surface temperature tells you little about the water a few feet down. Cold-water shock does not care how strong a swimmer you are, which is the practical argument for wearing the jacket rather than stowing it.
Stay out of the dam zone
"trespassing in the following restricted areas is prohibited: within 1,500 feet northeast of the dam (in the reservoir and on shore), the dam structure, and all posted areas around the dam."
Ramps are use-at-your-own-risk
"Launch ramps are open. Courtesy docks have been placed. Use the ramp and reservoir at your own risk."
Check bloom status before anyone gets wet
Charleston Day Use Area carried Danger advisories on 22 August, 1 September and 6 September 2023. At that tier DEQ says "boating not safe", not just swimming.
Hazards and what to watch for
Deer Creek has a documented advisory history. None of this is hypothetical.
Utah DEQ monitors Deer Creek for harmful algal blooms. The Charleston Day Use Area carried Danger advisories on August 22, September 1 and September 6 of 2023, plus Warning advisories and a Health Watch across that season. The tiers follow the state's recreational health advisory guidance.
Danger Issued here in 2023
"DANGER: Swimming not safe, boating not safe, and be cautious eating fish."
Warning
"WARNING: Do not swim, be cautious when boating, and eating fish is OK."
Health Watch
"Do not swim, be cautious boating, do not eat fish."
Precautions when a bloom is present:
- Do not swim or water ski in areas of algae
- Avoid areas of algae when boating
- Clean fish well and discard guts
- Keep animals away
- Don't drink the water
- Know how to recognize a harmful algal bloom
Advisory status changes through the season. Check DEQ before you get in.
Boats from infested water must be decontaminated first. The park names "Lake Powell, Nevada, Colorado, Montana, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico, and Canada."
Decontamination runs "7:30 AM- 6:30 PM daily".
Canyon wind
The same "predictable canyon winds" that make this a water sports haven are what catch small craft out. They build through the afternoon.
Restricted dam area
"trespassing in the following restricted areas is prohibited: within 1,500 feet northeast of the dam (in the reservoir and on shore), the dam structure, and all posted areas around the dam."
Provo River below the dam
"Lifejackets must be worn at all times when floating on the Provo River."
Cold water at altitude
The park sits at 5,400 feet. Surface temperature tells you little about the water a few feet down, and no-decompression limits shorten at altitude.
Wildlife
"Be aware that bears, cougars, rattlesnakes and other dangerous wildlife reside in the area and use appropriate caution."
Fire
"Stage 2 Fire Restrictions: NO OPEN FIRES OF ANY KIND", and that covers "fires within an established fire pit, charcoal grills, pellet grills, or ash-producing fuel." Restrictions are seasonal; check current status.
479,221 people drink what comes out of this reservoir.
Deer Creek supplies an average 73,454 acre-feet a year to seven Wasatch Front cities. It already carries a state-approved phosphorus TMDL. Fathom Restoration recovers submerged vehicles, equipment and debris from Utah waters so that what is down there stops being a problem for what comes out of the tap.
Donate to Protect Deer CreekEvery claim on this page is cited.
Thirteen state and federal sources, plus one figure derived here and labelled as such. Each was re-checked against the source text, not a summary.