Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery

Below Roy Inks Dam, where the Colorado leaves Inks Lake, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs a national fish hatchery on about 200 acres between Inks Lake State Park and Longhorn Cavern State Park. Its thirty production ponds raise fish from egg collection to pond harvest, and channel catfish are among the species it works with. The service invites visitors to see the process up close.

The hatchery sits at the foot of the dam that made the lake above it. The Lower Colorado River Authority built Inks Dam between 1936 and 1938 as one of a chain on the Colorado; it has no floodgates, and floodwater passes over an uncontrolled spillway, while a single 12,500-kilowatt generator works in step with Buchanan Dam upstream.

The ponds draw wildlife, and the service lists walking, hiking, biking, birding, photography, fishing, picnicking and non-motorized boating among the things to do. It is a quiet stop between the busier parks on Park Road 4, reached nine miles west of Burnet on TX-29 and then four miles along Park Road 4. The phone lines can be unreliable; the service suggests email.