Kayak on Lake Texoma

On the shore of Lake Texoma, Eisenhower State Park is famous for its rocky lake shorelines. The best way to explore the shorelines and coves of the lake is kayaking! People do not have to bring their own kayak, the Eisenhower Yacht Club, which is located inside the park, rent kayaks, canoes, paddle boards and motor boats. The first time we went to the park was 7 years ago with family and friends, and we did not kayak due to strong wind. 

Lily and I went to the park this Saturday for a weekend getaway and the weather was almost perfect for kayaking - cool temperature, clear blue sky and light breeze. 

We rent a sit-on-top tandem kayak. Lily sat in the front, I sat in the back, we paddled out of the dock in unison. The wind on the lake was stronger than that on the land, and the water was choppy. 

We set the lover's leap at Elm point (the northern tip in the following map at south side of the lake) as our turn-around point. We turned left, paddled north along the shoreline, against the wind and waves.  The good thing about the tandem is that we could paddle really fast, even against the wind.

Due to the wave, we stayed some distance from the shore, and paddled at a steady pace. A fisherman on a big boulder greeted us. 

Map of the park and shoreline

The water on lake Texoma was choppy when we left the dock

We turned into every cove we passed along the way. The water in the coves was much calmer, and we could stay close to the shore.  We slowed down in the coves to appreciate emerging autumn colors,  to look at big boulders closely. 

We took many photos of the lake, the foliage, the rocky shore. 

Tandem kayak is not so good for us to take picture of our paddling :). Lily could not turn around to take picture of me or let me take picture of her. She got innovative, she took picture of me paddling using selfie.

The water in a cove was much calmer

We paddled a tandem kayak - Lily in the front, I was at the back 

Kayaking is the best way to explore shorelines

As we exited from the third cove, a grey heron suddenly flapped into the air from the grey rocks in front us. Despite that we were looking for waterfowls, shore birds, we did not see the big grey heron. It was so well camouflaged, we did not see it even when it was right in front of our eyes!

The heron turned right out of the cove, and we followed. It landed on a big rock, we inched forward to try to get a good picture, and before Lily could get a good photo, it took off again, flew toward the center of the lake and turned left, and back into the cove. We did not follow this time, and paddled toward Elm's point instead.

The cove right after the Elm's point is deep, like a river. Instead of turning around as previously planned, we paddled inward to see more foliage and rocky shore. As we were exiting from the cove, we startled another big grey heron!  It flew forward 100 yards or so landed on a big rock, we saw it but we could not take good pictures of it. It took off when we got close. It landed right at the mouth of the cove, on a rock near water level. This time, we could take good pictures when it soared because the blue sky was the background now.

One hour had passed by now. We turned around, paddling toward dock straight without sidetracking any more. It took us about 30 minutes to get back. 

We thoroughly enjoyed kayaking on Lake Texoma, in this cool sunny autumn afternoon . 

 

foliage was everywhere

selfie in the tandem

A grey heron soaring over the shoreline