Crystal Lake Park

We rented a cabin here. The cabin description makes it sound like there is a full sized bed, a separate bunk bed, and a futon; this is incorrect, as the 'bunk bed' is just the top part of the bed in this case. That description was a bit misleading, and the cabin was smaller than expected.

The lake was nice with a good water temperature while we were here. The first day we went swimming, it was great and both my wife and I, and our kids, really enjoyed it even though there was a local boy here who was a bit obnoxious. The second day, however, there were several issues. First, someone had brought six kids, in kayaks, and parked the kayaks in the small beach area; we had thought that boats of any kind were not allowed in that area, and this meant nearly half that beach was unusable. Additionally, the way the waves were that day, the swimming area was full of floating bits of seaweed, so we spent very little time there.

We did fish some, and the kids both caught small bluegill fish that we were able to clean and eat, so that experience was great.

The playground at the park is definitely designed with older kids in mind. There is a slide, but getting to it is difficult for younger children. All other activities here are meant for older kids (monkey bars, a ladder). It would be nice if their playground had a bit more for smaller kids as well.

We had purchased firewood from the park ($5 for a bundle) and put it out by the fire pit for our cabin on Saturday. We didn't have the opportunity to use it that day, and intended to instead have a fire and roast marshmallows on Sunday. However, when we got back to the cabin from going out for lunch on Sunday, we found that someone had stolen the firewood, and we were forced to purchase another bundle. While this is just a mild inconvenience, it was nevertheless annoying.

The nearby town areas didn't have very much to do for kids, but we were able to find good places to eat and keep busy at the park.

Overall, this was not a bad place for a short vacation, but if we'd been wanting to spend more time here, we would have quickly run out of activities to do, and the futon would have grown quite uncomfortable.