Evangola State Park – Swimming in Lake Erie {New York}

I’m a bit behind in blogging about our adventures – this post highlights our travels around September 6-7, 2015. Follow us on Instagram to find out where we are currently!

After spending a couple nights at Harvest Host locations in Ohio and Pennsylvania we landed at Evangola State Park in Western New York. We lucked out and grabbed the last available spot on the Monday of Labor Day and I’m so glad we got it!

The campground was packed but we had a nice back-in spot with electric for around $35/night. The campground is not close enough to walk to the beach, you had to drive – but there is plenty of parking at the public beach. (Photo above was taken AFTER the holiday weekend, when most everyone had left!)

Imagine boondocking for two nights – without hook-ups (read: no air conditioning or showers) in HOT, humid weather. We were feeling super grimy by the time we parked at Evangola. It wasn’t 30 minutes after we unhitched the trailer that we headed straight for the BEACH.

I can safely attest that it has NEVER felt more refreshing to jump in a lake. The sun was shining, the sand was soft and the waves made Lake Erie feel like a tropical ocean.

Unlike other state parks we’ve visited this one had a designated swimming area – with life guards! You were required to swim in the roped off area in front of the life guard station. This made things crowded – especially on the busy Labor Day weekend, but we had so much fun, we didn’t care.

The kids played in the sand – making sand castles as part of a sand castle competition that they happened to be having that afternoon. They didn’t win, not even close, because they kept going back into the water to swim more. 🙂

Day two at the park I was a little more prepared – packing our Texsport Calypso Cabana Beach Shelter Canopy for shade – we played at the beach for hours. The waves were much bigger the second day and we spent most of our time jumping into the waves and drifting to/from the shore.

We had zero expectations for Evangola State Park – we really had no idea what to expect before we got there. We stopped there primarily to make it through Labor Day weekend and get closer to Niagara Falls. Although it was crowded because of the holiday weekend – the beach and the lake were amazing. They also had a bunch of educational activities for the kids – but really we just wanted to play in the water and sunshine. . . and we did.

Sunset over Lake Erie at Evangola State Park

Have you been to Evangola State Park before? Do you have a favorite New York state park? Leave a comment and let us know!