Part # 3

Let’s start here. This is one of the many lake coves that you can walk down to off the trail. This is how you can find quiet places.

The water is beautifully clear! It is cool by shore, but I imagine very cold in the lake itself. Inside the park there are no swimming areas, so people just swim wherever they want to.

The lake itself, at its deepest, is 260 ft. That is near the dam. The average depth is 70 ft. I’m assuming this is when the lake is filled. It has 116 mi of shoreline and is 10,000 acres in size. In comparison, Lake Winnebago is 137,700 acres in size and has 88 mi of shoreline. As we know it’s average depth is 15 and 1/2 ft and its deepest point is 21 ft.

As I was sitting by the shoreline, I thought this would be a beautiful and quiet spot to bring a chair and read. Until I turned around and saw this boulder up the hill behind me! It’s probably solid in the side of the hill, but I did not want to trust it! If it rolled down the side, I would be flat as a pancake. 😅 Darn.

Divers

I didn’t notice this, but apparently this Lake is a popular place for scuba diving. It seems the divers place things on the bottom of the lake when they get certified and to be used as markers. Some things in the article I read mention that they have a Christmas tree ( I’m betting an artificial one) a Volkswagen auto that unfortunately made its way down, and even a scary statue based on a horror movie.

I believe all these items were removed by said divers and rangers in 2018 or 2019. They were considered as litter and they could get a hefty fine. If they would not have put it on Facebook nobody would have known except other divers!

Day Use Areas

This is how the Day Use areas look. All the extras of a campsite: table, roof, and fire ring. Beautiful views. I came to this place when my RV site was right by the road. During the week it was real quiet.

Another Day Use area. This is further down the trail that runs from the Visitor’s Center. The road is packed dirt/sand, but easily accessible from the paved park road.

A nice area along the hiking trail. Not too far from another parking lot, but far enough to find quiet. These are really nice and well thought out. 👍

Exploring Dirt Roads

There are a number of dirt roads that take you through rougher areas, hills, overviews or access to the lake. They usually are short but challenging dirt roads. The one I have pictures of had a very abrupt ending at the top of the hill!!

This road was curvy, bumpy, and climbed steeply. So steep that when I came up this last hill, I could not see over the hood so I stopped. Good idea!!! 😯 The road ended! Of course I wasn’t going very fast because it was so challenging.

I have no idea how that truck found its way to that place. I will say, people that come to this park are not afraid to drive to where they want to go, no matter what!

I had just enough room to make a circle and turn around. It was just a small flat area on top. Driving back down was easier. 🙂 It had a view. 😅

Here is another brave (?) soul who isn’t afraid to drive where he wants. That “road” along the shoreline is really slanted,!! I had trouble WALKING along it !!! And that’s a nice car! 😬 I don’t know how he turned around. 🤔

The car on the edge is just to the right of this paved road. I have never seen the end of this road out of the water. But apparently the water comes pretty far up the road when the lake fills up!

I’m guessing this area really looks different when the lake is high!!

Unique Playground

When I was at this park 2 years ago, they first began building this playground. It’s located at the top of the hill by the campground and near the Visitor’s Center. It has a really large area for kids to run around in, and mesh tenting overhead to keep the Sun out.

All activities are based on desert creatures. This Ghila Monster is a huge slide.

The eagle is another slide. The smaller kids climb in behind the eagle’s legs and slide out the back. It’s a huge bird. And of course the rope ladder is there to practice on as well.

A spider web of course!! The playground does have 4 swings as well . It looks like they may be adding more activities to it in the future.

I hope you enjoyed this edition. I can’t believe how much I found to write about! 😬 I hope you found it interesting. 🤞