Jordan Lake State Rec. Area in North Carolina

Trip Overview

My husband and I took our 4 year old son out for his very first camping trip, we've taken a lot of day trips with the kayaks but never staying out over night. We started out Saturday April 25, the weather was absolutely beautiful the high's I think were in the 80's. We went to Parkers Creek Campground at the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. It was $15 a night. We picked our campsite and unloaded the tent and all the supplies. After that we got out our fishing poles and walked down from our campsite to the lake (most of the campsite's are on the water). It was about 5-6pm when we picked up our fishing gear and walked back to our site. We took our son for a ride around the campgrounds on his bike then headed back to make hotdogs for dinner.

Next morning we got up and packed everything except the tent into the car and unloaded the kayaks (we wanted the tent to dry out from the dew) we then walked our kayaks down to the lake, (like I said most sites are right on the water) we had a great place to put in.

It was early on Sunday so there were not a lot of motor boats out on the lake yet. We paddled north on the lake we saw an Osprey nest with one inside. We continued further up and saw a Great Blue Heron. We paddled past a little island and went down into a cove, all the way at the end was a little creek, had it not been for my husband I would have paddled right past it, it was kind of tucked away. My husband led the way as we paddled because the further in we got the more narrow it became, I was almost tempted to turn back around because of all the debris we had to navigate around. There were a lot of downed tree branches and stumps.

The further back we got we could hear running water as if there were a waterfall some where near by. It became very shallow and my husband actually bottomed out his boat. We were so close and we could hear and see a little bit of water running. I decided to get out and walk the rest of the way while my husband stayed back with our son (it's hard enough navigating slippery rock by yourself let alone with a 4 year old) as I got back there I could see a little babbling brook running over smooth rocks, there was no way to take the kayaks any further because it was so shallow and the stream or brook had too many dips but it was so beautiful that when I walked back I told my husband he had to see it.

When he got back we turned our kayaks around and headed back for our campsite, that's when we saw another Osprey this time we were able to see it return to a nest where we saw one in the nest and another on a branch nearby.

All in all it was a most enjoyable trip one we intend to repeat very soon.

Accommodations:

Showers & Bathrooms are available (and they're clean; a rare find in some places).

Fees:

It's $15 a night for the campsite. There's also Seaforth Day-Use Area which another access point to the lake if you don't want to stay the night, not really sure what they charge.

Directions:

It's off of Hwy 64 in Apex. The address for this site is:


280 State Park Road


Apex, NC 27523


Phone: (919)362-0586

Contact:

North Carolina State Parks and Recreation: www.ncparks.gov/

Resources:

Plenty of birds to see so get yourself a good bird watching book. I recommend "Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America".