Located: Between Park City and Heber City, UT off of HWY 40.
Admission‎: Day Use $7 – $10 Camping $16 – $20

Activities/Services: picnic areas, beach access, boat launch and rental, canoe/kayak, general store, fishing, tent/RV camping, playgrounds.

Our adventure at Jordanelle started off a little rough.  A 10 minute line of cars entering + having reserved one of the only campsites without a tent pad + realizing we forgot the kids sleeping bags and beach towels + lots of debris in the water due to high water = wondering just what the outcome of this overnight was going to be…

But it turned out fine.  It was so hot we didn’t need towels after swimming, some friends that arrived later brought us extra sleeping bags, and we popped our tent on the cement (not too comfortable).  Lessons learned?  Check the contents of our trailer one last time before leaving and be very sure of what site you reserve- taking note of proximity to the water, the bathrooms, shade and playgrounds if those things are important to you.

Overall, we probably won’t go back.  Jordanelle is one of the closer mountain reservoirs to the Salt Lake Valley, making it very crowded with day trippers and RV over-nighters.  Campsites are close to each other, so either your crying kid keeps everyone up or the drunk neighbors keep your kids up.  The swim beaches are gravel at best, and mostly rocky with 1-2ft banks that are hard for little kids to negotiate.  Be willing to deal with lots of people if you go on a hot weekend in the summer.

On the plus side – beautiful location, very kid friendly and free warm showers at the end of the day!