Willard Bay in winter: the eagles, the ice rule, and the $10 gate.

What the winter looks like there

Willard Bay is a freshwater reservoir diked off from the Great Salt Lake, run by the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, with Utah State Parks running the recreation. The park is open 6 am to 10 pm year-round. In the off season, Labor Day to Easter, day use is $10 a vehicle, $5 for seniors and $2 on foot or by bicycle, and the park says its hours don't mean the gate is staffed: there's self-pay when nobody is in the booth.

The courtesy and fishing docks stay in year-round, and the park's own page describes the winter months as a wildlife-watching area for nesting eagles. That's the draw once the boats are gone: the birds along the dikes, a quiet lot, and a bay that may or may not have a lid on it.

The ice

We looked for a state report on Willard's ice and there isn't one. The DWR's winter ice fishing pieces list Pineview, Hyrum, Mantua, East Canyon and Rockport, and they send readers to State Parks for conditions. State Parks' conditions page for Willard reports the water level, the temperature and the water surface (on September 21 it read 49 percent, 61 degrees, all areas open water), so that page is the place to look in January, along with the docks.

If it has frozen, the rule from Utah State Parks is the same on every water in the state: a minimum of four inches of good clear ice before you walk out, six or more for a snowmobile or ATV, and no cars, trucks, vans or SUVs on the ice. Clear ice is stronger than cloudy ice. Fish with a partner, drill test holes as you go, and carry ice awls, a rope and a life jacket. March and April are called out as particularly dangerous, when the ice deteriorates from underneath while it still looks like ice.

Before you drive out

The water level matters more than the season. On September 21 both marina ramps were marked closed, launch at your own risk, for low water, while the North and South marinas stayed open for day use and all three campgrounds (Cottonwood, Willow Creek and South Marina) were open. Low water in fall means a lot of exposed shoreline in winter, and the conditions page will say which areas are open on the day.

Dogs are allowed everywhere but the cabins, on a six-foot leash.