Inks Lake State Park

[flatstick96]

Have reserved a site at Inks Lake over Easter weekend - will be the first camping trip with the kids, and we're all excited. I did a lot of camping when I was younger, and I'm eager to get back into it now that the kids are old enough to enjoy it.

Just wondering if anyone here has ever camped at Inks Lake, and if so:

What did you think of it?

Is there anything in particular that we should keep in mind as we prepare for the trip?

Thanks...

[Shadow]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

I've heard the name of the place, but that's the extent of my knowledge about it.

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

It's about an hour west of us, right by Lake Buchanan (we live in Georgetown). I've heard it's nice, but have never been. If there are any other places in central Texas you could recommend, I'm all ears - I'm hoping that camping with the girls will become a regular thing (at least during the parts of the year where it isn't too damned hot).

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Thanks for the tip about the deer - my girls will LOVE that (they are VERY into animals).

From what I've read, Inks Lake is what is called a "level-controlled reservoir" - meaning it generally isn't allowed by the LCRA to fluctuate by more than 1 foot; so regardless of the drought conditions, it's level stays the same pretty much all the time. Check out this 2010 - 2012 water level graph (almost always between 887 and 888 feet):

http://inks.lakesonline.com/Level.asp

Do you recall any specifics about the fishing? that's one activity I'd like to engage in while we're there. What time of the year did you go there?

[immortal_ben]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

All I can say is... we want pictures! They do not need to have your kids in them (I have kids and do not like posting pics of them online most of the time), but we want to see some pics.

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Excellent - thanks for all of the information HogSnapper!

Ben, I will certainly take some photos.

[TexasMan77]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

I just returned from Inks Lake yesterday after an overnight trip, my first there in 10 years.

The good:

Outstanding hiking trails. Well laid out, well marked, and color-coded by degree of difficulty. They'd just had a large rain and the bluebonnets were EVERYWHERE and were absolutely beautiful.
Regular ranger patrols, something lacking in other parks.
Great park store, again, something other parks dont have. I picked up a coffee cup & refrig magnet.
Canoe, paddle boat & kayak rentals.
The best primitive camp sites I've seen. Under large oak trees (fully shaded), flat dirt ground, not many rocks. About a 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot

The bad:
The campsites offer NO privacy in the water/electric area. This isn't so in the water only/tent only sites, where I highly recommend you stay. I booked at the last minute and water/electric was all that was left.

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Thanks for the report, TM77. We've got two little kids, so we won't be in the primitive area (strictly car camping at this point), but we will be in the water only/tent only area (which, based on google earth images, looks decently treed with some privacy). My girls are really excited about seeing some wildflowers, and with all the rain we've been having, I'm hoping there should be plenty.

Any idea what the cost was for the canoe/kayak rentals?

Also, did you happen to do any fishing?

[TexasMan77]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

I do hope the bluebonnets are still as beautiful when you come.
I dont know the cost of kayak/canoe rental, I wasn't paying attention, sorry. Didn't fish either, rather hiked about 6 miles before I left.

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Well, it's in the books. Park was nice - well-staffed with friendly and helpful folks, a nice store, decent amenities all around. As TM77 mentioned, the tent-only/water-only sites are well treed, with decent privacy - in some instances they're crammed together pretty closely, but there are some really nice sites too. When we got there Friday there was relatively little to choose from, and all of the REALLY nice sites were long gone, but the one we got was decent, with good access to the water. Restrooms were clean and well stocked - better than I've seen at many other parks. Park was absolutely PACKED this past weekend.

The lake itself was a little disappointing. There's a lot of sediment and the water is really stagnant and cloudy - just doesn't feel very "clean". The one gripe I had with the park is that there's no defined swimming area - the girls swam in the little cove that our site backed up to, but again - the water was kinda nasty. Fishing was very poor - I imagine that if you had a boat and could explore the lake in more detail you'd find better places for fishing, but where we were, it wasn't very good at all. The girls did manage a few bluegills apiece from the fishing pier though, so they left happy. I did catch one largemouth (the only one I saw caught all weekend - spoke to a bunch of people who never caught a fish the whole weekend).

Nice hiking trails, and plenty of wildflowers. Lots of small wildlife too, though we didn't see any deer at all. Plenty of birds, squirrels, lizards, ducks, geese, snakes, turtles, etc. Pretty much all of the trees are oaks, and they were full of Buck Moth caterpillars which, we learned the hard way, sting. We were on the wrong end of several of these encounters until we figured out that these guys were capable of causing such discomfort - after that, we managed to successfully avoid them the rest of the weekend. The girls did find a large scorpion in the shower one night - that was interesting. Thankfully, they're familiar with scorpions are knew to keep away from it. I also had a good-sized water snake swim by about 5' from me when I was fishing - I didn't focus on trying to ID it, as I was more interested in just letting him go on his merry way.

Some photos (nothing of great quality, as all were taken with my phone):

Our site; that's the lake that you see in the background:



This little guy crawled right into one of our bags and stole a strawberry:



I'm always amazed at how well these guys blend in:



Maybe my favorite part about camping; the fire:



More photos to follow...

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Some silly geese; these were taken right where out site backed up to the lake:







The sign that seemingly EVERYONE disregards (I've got a new "camping pet peeve" now):

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Some wildflowers:







This one was growing right out of a granite boulder:

[flatstick96]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Bluebonnets:





My favorite "wild flowers" of all:

[txcamper]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Great photos! I hope you enjoyed your stay there. Inks Lake State Park is my family's favorite park and my parents go at least 10x a year to camp and even more just to spend the day. In fact they spent Saturday there so you might have seen them, ha!

It's a great park, very friendly staff, lots of sites and lots of stuff to do. Devil's Watering Hole is great for swimming and cliff jumping, especially in Texas summers! The trail is great, there are short versions and a long loop that's about 6 miles. My parents like to mountain bike there but it's an incredibly tough ride and rather unforgiving since it's full of cacti. I don't think I'll ever be skilled/brave enough to do it but they love it!

The only problem I've ever had with Inks is that in the summer you often need to make reservations at least a month in advance to make sure you get a spot!

[TexasMan77]

Re: Inks Lake State Park

Wow, great pictures!! I knew you had a great time.
I'm taking my wife to McKinney Falls SP next weekend, my first time there. I'm so pumped!