Situated on 3000 acres in southwest Westminster, Colorado, Standley Lake Regional Park offers visitors a wide variety of activities.

Around the Lake

There’s a lot to do around the lake. Standley Lake Regional Park has 4 campgrounds, 14 miles of trails, and 2000 acres (on land) to explore.

Camping is allowed only during the summer season, but the Park’s many trails are open year round. You don’t even have to pay to use the trails! There are several trail head parking lots around the periphery that you can park in without paying. Pets are also welcome, just be sure to keep them on a leash and don’t let them into the lake. That’s a no no. The trails are open to biking as well as hiking and for the mountain bike crowd there are a few decent hills. If nothing else they give you a great view of the lake.

In addition to the trail system, Standley Lake Regional Park houses a Bald Eagle preserve in the northwest corner of park. This area is closed to the public. However, if you’re a bird watcher, the reserver offers a good chance to watch the rare bird. In addition of the Eagles, there is a wide variety of birds that make Standely lake their home. In 2001 Blue Herons took up residence in the park, adding to the list of species.

On the Lake

Standley Lake occupies about 1000 acres of the park. At it’s deepest, near the dam, it is about 96 feet deep. The lake provides drinking water to the cities of Westminster, Northglenn, and Thornton. Because of this swimming and jet skis are prohibited. The lake is open to boating and fishing from the beginning of May to the end of September each year, from 7:30 AM to sunset.

Standley Lake is an ideal place for Westminster residents to take their boats for several reasons. The lake is within the city, so drive times are generally under 20 minutes, allowing you to make the most of the day of evening. Because the Park requires boats to be permitted, the lake is rarely crowed. This is in stark contrast to Cherry Creek State Park, in Aurora, which is usually mobbed during the summer. For sailors, this is particularly nice because there’s generally less chop on the lake. Winds on the lake are generally pretty shifty, but that’s common in Colorado. I’ve found that summer evenings are a great time to sail. The wind is usually pretty good that time of day and there aren’t usually too many power boats out that time of day.

The Park restricts the number of power boats that it issues permits to to 550 per year. If you want to get a permit, you have to participate in the lottery for permits. See the Park’s website for more details about getting a permit. Sail boats and boats with motors under 20 HP don’t need to participate in the lottery.

Fishing

I’ll be honest, I’m no fisherman. However, there are quite a few people who head out on the lake to catch fish. According the the Park, Standley lake is stocked by the Colorado Division of Wildlife with the following types of fish:

• Rainbow Trout
• Brown Trout
• Walleye
• Yellow Perch
• Channel Catfish
• Carp
• Wiper
• Large Mouth Bass
• Small Mouth Bass
• Striper
• Bullgill
• Sunfish

The state record walleye was pulled out of Standley lake in 1997. Friends of mine who fish say that Standley Lake is a decent place to fish but not great. The views at the lake are great, however, and with relatively few power boats zipping around it’s gotta be nice to just sit out on the water hoping for a bite. One drawback to this, perhaps, is that no alcohol is allowed in the park. The lake is patrolled so I wouldn’t recommend testing this.

Tags: Outdoor Activities, Recreation, Westminster

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 11:23 am and is filed under Things to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.