On New Years Day, Bluewater Lake State Park hosted a First Day Hike. We went out and hiked a few of the trails available at the park. The photo above is our GPS track overlaid onto Google Earth. We started out hiking down into the canyon where the Bluewater Creek is at and down almost to the Dam Then we came back and climbed back up to the parking area and walked down to the pavilion that overlooks the lake. In all, we hiked three and a half miles. There was snow on the ground and it was a cold and overcast, but it was an enjoyable hike.
While we were hiking the canyon trail, we heard the call of a hawk, but we couldn't see it. It was up on the rim of the canyon.
If you are interested in hiking down into the canyon, be aware that the rim at the top is an elevation of 7400 Ft and the canyon below is almost a 100 ft drop down to 7300 ft. If you aren't used to the elevation, it can be a quite a climb back up.
At the moment, the lake is closed for fishing due to the ice. It's not thick enough for ice fishing yet. When we were there on the first, the ice was approximately three inches in depth, they won't allow ice fishing until the ice reaches at least four and a half inches.
Keep an eye out on the Park's website for more information about the ice fishing.
