Hamilton Branch State Park

Hey there! Today we visit Hamilton Branch State Park. This is a lake park that is mainly just a campground and day use area. There are really no trails here just a very short connector to a large area (non park) bike trail. The park is kept up good and the day use area has a couple of playgrounds, picnic areas and plenty of lake access. If you do want access to the non-park bike trail the trail-head is located close to the main building at the entrance to the park.


The park is split into two main areas, the campground and the day use/lake access area. The campground is standard fare and kept up good. The day use area is really nice and large enough to accommodate several large groups. This is a great area for a picnic or group event!



Without any trails to explore we just had a nice picnic and enjoyed the beach!



This is a great park to catch a sunset over the lake and enjoy the wildlife. We saw plenty of wildlife and as we were leaving we caught some deer entering the day use area, probably looking for leftovers!




Even though there isn't a lot of variety with this park there's still plenty to see and do. They keep the park up well and the day use area is really nice with plenty of space along the lake. Scroll down past this to see a few more pictures from the park and as always, be sure to read the rest of this blog to see our other state park adventures and then visit our website to see the pictures in higher resolution and the ones that didn't make it into the blog! Fine art prints are available for purchase at my site also. Be sure to connect with us on social media! All this can be found at our site: http://www.centerlightstudios.com.

Shameless Plug!

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Baker Creek State Park

Hey There! Today we visit Baker Creek State Park. This is a nice little park that has a campground a few trails and a great community building/area. Looking at the map this looks like a large park but it's really not that large and parts of it have been closed down. There was two campgrounds here but it's now down to just one. They have two trails however both trails are in need of work and the ranger told me the larger trail (the bike/hike trail) had major flood damage a few years ago and has not been repaired yet. To get to the smaller, still hike-able trail you have to go to campground 2. This trail starts across from the bathhouse and goes right behind (almost right in!) a few camp spots. 


We only saw one playground here and it was at the community building, not sure if there's another one tucked away on the campground. The community building sits right on the lake and is really well maintained. Check out my link at the end of the post to see a 360 picture from the building!



After visiting the ranger building and getting our stamp we headed to the trail, after going down and behind the first few camp spots you'll come out by the lake. You can see the main building across the lake here also.




The trail follow along the lake a little but we went a little further around the lake shore before heading back and continuing the trail. We found a few spots to get some cool pictures!




After following the lake it turns back and comes back up to the road you'll leave on, the trail is pretty well kept up and marked up to this point.



After you cross the road the trail gets a little rougher, there's trees down and there's some parts that would be easy to get lost at if you don't have a good sense of direction!



It's still a nice trail and if you're up to tackling the whole thing you'll be rewarded with a good variety of foliage and wildlife. If you only want to stick to the easy part you can either turn back before crossing the road or take the road back to the campground.



Be sure to check out the 360 picture taken from the community building here: https://www.facebook.com/centerlightstudios/

This is a nice little park that I feel like used to be a lot more "park" years ago. It would be nice to see it restored and fixed up. There's not a whole lot to do here anymore, but could be with a little work. Scroll down past this to see a few more pictures from the park and as always, be sure to read the rest of this blog to see our other state park adventures and then visit our website to see the pictures in higher resolution and the ones that didn't make it into the blog! Fine art prints are available for purchase at my site also. Be sure to connect with us on social media! All this can be found at our site: http://www.centerlightstudios.com.