Inks Lake State Park

Inks Lake is the second of the six Highland Lakes on the Colorado, held between Buchanan Dam to the north and Roy Inks Dam to the south. The Lower Colorado River Authority built Inks Dam, a concrete gravity dam, between 1936 and 1938 and named it for Roy B. Inks of its first board. Because its power plant releases water in step with the flow coming down from Lake Buchanan, the lake stays close to one level, so the shoreline does not change much from season to season.

The rocks at the water's edge are very old: pink gneiss and granite of the Llano Uplift, colored by lichens. The Devil's Waterhole is a small rocky canyon for hiking and swimming, with waterfalls upstream when Valley Spring Creek is running.

The state bought about 1,200 acres from the LCRA in 1940. Civilian Conservation Corps Company 854, which had just finished at Longhorn Cavern, built roads, culverts and a boathouse here and carried the scenic parkway on from the cavern. The camp closed in 1942 and the park opened in 1950. Today it has nearly 200 campsites, 22 cabins, 9 miles of trails, fishing piers and rentals of kayaks, canoes and paddleboards. There are no lifeguards.