Had a change of plans come up recently, so I spent a couple hours at another local state park.
The day I did all this, I had a doctor appointment that got cancelled, so I figured I may as well use some of the time to have a look at another state park in my area, this one a little closer to home.
This was Lake Alvin Recreation Area, a place I've covered a couple times here over the years. The most recent was in 2023, but that's been a couple years ago now. The primary reason I went was because they spent a good portion of last year reworking the spillway, which did really need the work. The state Game, Fish and Parks department did a few other things there while they were at it.
I didn't get to the swimming beach this time around because there were people there, but that's OK, because it didn't look much changed from last time I was there, and that's all I did.
There are two units to this place, a main one to the north, where most of the stuff is, and another, smaller one a little to the south by the dam and spillway. The first place I stopped when I got there was the picnic area in the main area.
This is not a particularly big area in general, as this picture shows. It does get a good amount of use, though, since both the grills at the picnic shelter there had been used. I know that because I took a look at them when I went over to at least try to take a selfie there that didn't work out so well. I still have both attempts as part of this photoset on my hard drive, at least for now. If there's interest, I just might share one of them in a separate post later.
There's a walking path that goes from the picnic area to the swimming beach, which is why there's this sign that says alcoholic beverages are prohibited and pets and glass containers are not allowed beyond that point:
It starts off nice, but it gets steep fast:
I might have tried it, but I was actually less well prepared for it than I was for my trip to Lake Vermillion a couple months back. Plus, we'd just gotten two inches of rain the day before I went, which didn't really help matters, so I just drove over to the swimming beach. Didn't do any pictures there, because it was actually fairly busy for a Thursday afternoon, but like I said, I did one of these there not so long ago, and it really hadn't changed. With that in mind, I went over by the boat ramp that's there, too, and tried to go on what I thought was the little loop hiking trail that was there. It wasn't marked the way I remembered, but it was still kind of there:
It was still a little damp from the rain I mentioned above, but I went ahead anyway, and took the right path when I came to this fork:
I'm not sure if this is meant to be as official a trail as I remember it being, as it was not a particularly well-maintained path, full of tight spaces just open enough for a guy my size to get through. This was one of the more open spaces I came to:
Not long after that, I came to this Russian olive tree, and since it looked like things only got worse from there, I turned back:
On my way out, I came across this thistle plant that I thought looked nice:
Once I was done there, I went over to the south unit to have a look at the new spillway and maybe try to fish off the fishing dock they have there. There were people using the dock when I first got there, so I didn't get any pictures, and when I went to try to fish off it, it turned out that the severe storm we'd had the day before had blown it just far enough away from the shore that I wouldn't have been able to get to it with all my stuff and not wind up getting dinged up worse than I would have if I'd gone down those steps to the swimming beach, which is something I really can't afford.
Since the dock wasn't an option, I decided to try on top of the dam that holds the lake back and makes the spillway necessary. Fortunately, there was a sloped path up to the top of the dam, because I don't think I would have been able to make it up these stairs with all my gear, either:
Steep inclines like that just aren't my thing, which is part of why I'm trying to get myself into a little better shape. The top of the dam is sort of a gravel path:
I couldn't get down to the water here, either because of all the grass, and it was a little steep for me, but the geese I tried to take a picture of at the far end of the dam had a little better luck with it:
The new spillway looks nice, too. The old one was in rather serious need of replacement, so this is an improvement:
There's also a road that gives access below the dam and spillway:
I'm sure it's possible to get closer to the water in that first picture there because I remember that being the case when I was a kid and doing that sort of thing with my dad back in the day, but that was ages ago now. By the time I got there on this particular day, I'd decided it was time to just head home because it had actually been hot and humid and I had to work at my day job the next day.
So that's more or less what Lake Alvin looks like nowadays. Even if I hadn't exactly planned on having that little adventure that day, I'm glad I did it all the same.
See you soon.
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