The peace and beauty one finds along the banks of the Old Dillon Reservoir is exactly what Diane Johnson and Linda Kelly hoped for on their trip to Colorado.

"(I was) interested in seeing a lot of this beautiful country and I have not been disappointed," said Kelly.

The Boston residents are taking plenty of pictures, which is a good thing because Eric Holgerson, Public Works director for the town of Dillon, says soon the reservoir will be empty.

"We have to drain it," said Holgerson.

The town of Dillon owns the reservoir and years ago they used it for water.

These days, Dillon's water comes from elsewhere, but the reservoir has remained, used now as a recreation destination for hiking and fishing. Each year, the small reservoir is inspected by Colorado's state engineering department, and this year the reservoir failed its inspection due to a number of dead pine trees killed by bark beetle.

"This year's inspection shows the pine beetle kill had affected a lot of the trees in the north dam," said Holgerson.

The dead trees are in danger of falling over. If that happens the root system could tear apart the north dam sending water downhill to Interstate 70 below.

That means the reservoir has to be drained immediately and while work is being done to bring the reservoir up to specs, it will also be expanded.

"Right now, the reservoir is 46 acre feet, and the enlargement we're looking for is 250 acre feet," said Holgerson.

The expansion project has been in the works for years, but it will now be bumped up, expanding the reservoir more than five times its current size - big enough for water storage.

"We would like to use it as a water supply along with Summit County and the town of Silverthorne," said Holgerson.

The work is expected to take years, lasting until 2010, but the reservoir will be drained over the course of two months allowing people to get fish from the reservoir before it's drained.

When everything is up to date, Johnson and Kelly say they'll be back to the Old Dillon Reservoir, which they expect will look different, but they hope the beauty will remain the same.