The death of a lake

When I traveled to Abilene State Park, 20 miles south of Abilene, TX I thought I'd be doing another campground review post.  The park was adjacent to the big, dam created, Lake Abilene and I envisioned lots of pictures of fishing and boating taking place on the water.  Unfortunately Texas, and much of the western US, has been suffering through a historic drought for much of the last 5 years and I was prepared to see reduced water levels in Lake Abilene, but I wasn't prepared for this.

Lake Abilene taken not far from where the "shore" would be.

After proceeding to my campsite within Abilene State park I had wondered why I, with the exception of one other camper, had the campground to myself, riding my bike up the hill to the lake pretty much answered that one.

A little strip of water where a big lake once was.

Incongruously, the official Abilene State Park map that is given to new arrivals still shows a diagram of the lake as if it was full and even proscribes the daily limits on various fish that are present (I was only allowed 5 large mouth bass per day!) or I should say WERE present.

No kidding!

During "normal" rainfall years I believe Abilene State Park with it's access to Lake Abilene would be one of the nicer parks in the Texas state system but, after seeing the heartbreaking state of the lake I couldn't give a fair campground review and I stayed just the two nights I had paid for site unseen.  Driving past many of the churches in the Abilene area you see "Pray for rain." on many of the signs in front of the churches.  I'll second that.

Thanks for reading!