Water Fun!

Hawthorn Bluff Campground is on Oologah Lake.

As you may have noticed in our pictures of campsites, we try to get a campsite on the water when possible. On our spring trip through the southwest we spent about 2 months in mostly dry desert areas. We had amazing water encounters in California, but Utah was beautiful, high desert again.

Once we got to Colorado heading east toward home, we followed the Colorado River coming down the mountains full of snow melt run-off. We often saw people on the water fly-fishing or white-water rafting. On the stream coming down from Sylvan Lake State Park we saw beaver dams and trees felled by beavers but missed seeing the beavers.

A boat on Lake Wilson in Kansas is seen from the Rocktown Trail. We camped on the other side of the lake.

On the water at both parks in Kansas, it was fun watching (and hearing) kids being pulled on tubes behind boats. At Hawthorn Bluff in Oklahoma there were lots of jet skis, sailboats and fast bass boats. One afternoon at 6 o’clock, probably 10-15 bass boats went flying past the campground all in the same general direction on the lake. Our guess is that it was a fishing tournament; they started coming back to the boat ramp around 8.

A boat sails past our campsite at Hawthorn Bluff.

Big surprise for our ‘waterfront’ site at Hernando Point in Mississippi- the lake was drained to a very low point. The dam that created the lake had some damage needing repair, so it was drained to relieve pressure on the dam. Interesting to see what is usually underwater.

Lake Lurleen in Alabama was a nice small, calm lake that a lot of families easily canoed on. One evening we were sitting outside and noticed a large orange buoy had been set out. The next morning we noticed quite a few runners on the road through the campground, then a few kids paddling around the buoy and back to the beach area. It was a local race of 2 mile run on the road, a 2 mile paddle on the lake, then 2 mile run in the woods on the trails. The part of the paddle in front of us was only 1 mile paddle for the younger entrants.

Participants kayak in the “Sleepy Kraken YakRun” at Lake Lurleen State Park.

Seeing all the families enjoying the water brings back happy memories of growing up with my water-loving father. I will continue to look for sites with beautiful water views and a waterfall is a bonus!