Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Largest Manmade Private Ski Lakes in the West

A few years ago, I received a bunch of helpful advice on our manmade waterski and wakesurf community in UT on the following threads;
Building a Watersports Resort Community

I know it's frustrating to see these big projects pop up and then get no update, so here's an update to break the trend.

After moving nearly 1,000,000 tons of dirt over the last 18 months, we are about to fill the lakes with water. The large lake is 25 acres and about 18ft deep and smaller lake is 11 acres and 9ft deep. There is a 3rd lake yet to start that is about 4 acres and will be intended as a paddle boat fishery with primarily lake trout. This makes the Willow Lakes community in UT the largest private manmade waterski community in the Intermountain West. The only one that I'm aware of with a large lake designed for the big wake crowd.

Additional things we added are:
-- UNIT deep water surf wave that is nearly 60ft wide and can accommodate up to 15 surfers per 1 hour session.
--40,000sf full service fitness spa & boat club; full 25,000sf weight & cardio, massage, spa, aesthetics, light therapy, smoothie bar, jacuzzis, swimming pools, cabanas, food truck patio, clubhouse, golf simulator, pickleball, etc.
--Island lounge on the slalom lake with jacuzzi, fire pit, sofas, and viewing platform.
--3 Air Nautique and 1 Ski Nautique provided to community through boat club.
--2 acre community beach area constructed of imported washed & screened white quartz beach sand.
--1.5 miles of white sand beach perimeter for jogging.
--2.5miles of riverfront with rafting access and fly fishing.
--7 miles of connected riverfront biking/walking trail.
--70 acres of forest and nature preserve.

There's more, but I can't really list everything here. I've attached a map to give you an idea of the end result and the community website with virtual fly throughs. It was a lot of work with everything from site selection, wetland mitigation, dam permit/construction, clay lining, utilities, water treatment, etc. Feel free to reach out with any questions or if you'd like me to post any construction pictures. Obviously, if anyone would like to purchase a lot here, feel free to message me. We've sold 55 lots so far and things are moving quickly.

Willow Lakes Website Here

You have been busy! Congrats on a job well done.! What type of cover is on the shoreline to mitigate wave erosion?

Yeah, it has been a ton of work so far. When people ask me what I mean by moving 1 million tons of dirt, I tell them to imagine the big haul trucks on the show Gold Rush, and then realize that it has taken about 50,000 round trips with those trucks. Because of the size of the site, the average turn for a truck is about 1.5 miles.

Re the cover: The shoreline is sloped at a 6% grade until about 3ft deep, then 20% grade until 8ft deep, and then 33% grade to the bottom. The 6% beach slope provides a very nice break for the wakes. Less than that and you tend to see sand bars forming. Steeper and you start to see a ledge being cut. The entire lake has a thick layer of compacted clay to seal it up, then with a layer of very thick needle-punched non-woven fabric (~10oz weight). Most of the 6% grade has the fabric covered with 6" of imported white quartz sand. This sand has been washed, dried, and screened twice to a desired grain size; 40-60 mesh. This sand has virtually no fines, is soft enough to play barefoot without tearing up your feet, but coarse enough that it stays in place better against wind and waves, and as a bonus it sparkles like diamonds in the sun. We searched through a lot of different sand and the vast majority of "beach sand" used for this kind of project is just single screened at either 1/8" or 60 mesh. This usually means that it has about 20% in the desired particle size and the rest is powdery sand, silt, and usually about 5-10% clay, which makes it crust over when it dries. With that material, we would lose 50% of it each season to wind and waves, because the fines just don't stay put.

Near the slope transition from 6% to 20% we switch the cover from sand to a native cobble mix that is generally 2-4" with about 30% native sand and a bit of fines to lock it all together, and we place that at 6-8" thick. This layer just keeps the fabric in place and prevents the deep wake from eroding the clay liner. The cobble layer is large enough to stay in place better but the stones are smooth enough not to hurt the feet for people whom are wading past their waist. The cobble acts as a bit of a backstop for the sand getting dragged into the lake as well. The general shoreline isn't really intended for swimming. We have dedicated beach and paddle areas for that which are protected by floating wave breaks. But the beach is meant for walking and jogging, so it was important to create an authentic beach feel, even if it meant higher maintenance.

Beyond that, this is a big community, so there is a full-time staff to maintain the shoreline and water quality. The contract for the sand has us likely bringing in about 300-500 tons each season to top things off. Early in the year we will lower the waterline about 18" to allow us to run our compact track loader with a drag mat to smooth things out.

Here are a couple pictures of part of one of the lakes. The site is too big to capture the dig from the ground. The first picture shows the southwest 1/3 of the larger lake facing southeast. The dozer in the hole is a D10 I think, if that gives you any sense of scale. The pile on the far left is the white sand we are importing. The steep cut in the middle of the picture is where the UNIT surf wave is located and those steeper slopes will be lined with 6-8" crushed granite riprap because it is a 50% slope.

The second picture is from the same location but facing west instead and capturing the middle half of the lake. You can barely see the large excavators in the distance about 1200ft away, for perspective. The rows of material down the middle of the lake are giant piles of clay and native gravel that will be used for sealing and erosion cover. The bottom of the lake needed 35,000 yards of clay for sealing and 20,000 yards of cover gravel.

As you can see, still snow on the mountains for the next few weeks here.

For anyone interested in the completed project, here ya go...

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DX0K-QKt4uT/?igsh=bGczbnJpczFtdHcw

Interesting!