Whats the nicest lake around Tulsa area?

[OKgetdown]

Never been much of a lake person, but have been wanting to get out to one lately. Not looking for boating or fishing. Just somewhere to relax with the family do some swimming maybe cook some burgers, you know.

So where is good?

 

[peanut]

Probably not Grand lake. From what a friend told me last night, the water has gotten nasty from all the chicken runnoft. He has a cabin there and doesn't enjoy the water much any more.
There are a couple parks at Ft. Gibson but they are going to be full this weekend.

 

[Kid Glock]

For local to Tulsa area I kinda like Skiatook (haven't been there in a while though) but I think water level is really low now.
Others that come to mind in NE part of state are Spavinaw and Euchee. Haven't been to either though in a long time.
I'm sure there are others that I'll think of but haven't been to them lately.

 

[Batman47]

Okmulgee lake and Dripping Springs are nice and close together, both will be packed this weekend.

 

[ldmtulsa]

from Bixby, Okmulgee lake would be a good choice. They have a nice little park with picknic, camping sights. Nice place.

 

[cal7.62x39]

very local is keystone. niceish, but for a decent lake its got to be eufaula it will be buisy just try to stay out of the town of eufaula as cops and traffic are bad. but plenty of other places to camp at ie canadian or crowder. and the lake is big enough to enjoy even with 80,000 other people

 

[Shoot Summ]

Depends on what you want to do.

Skiatook is nice, water is very nice, it can be windy and choppy at times, lot's of boat traffic there, hard to find a good place to do water sports although there are some areas.

Keystone is not one of my favorites, water is dirty, sometimes smelly, there are some decent beaches.

Grand is nice, but my little 20' boat gets pounded by the wake of the monster boats there, lot's of talk about the algae right now.

Hudson is nice, decent water.

The upper end of Ft. Gibson(Grand river) from Hudson down to Party Island is great for water sports, you can always find some smooth water, it is a channel though and boat traffic can be bad at times.

Ft Gibson lake is not one of my favorites, you have to know the lake pretty well to stay out of trouble, I totaled a boat there and tend to stay off of Gibson because of it.

Tenkiller is very nice......

 

[Honey Badger]

Keystone?

 

[sixseven]

Pretty sure Grand is going to be closed this weekend. When i heard about the algae i was thinking it was just clouds of it here and there, but no way. Look at the video on this link from the news helicopter...

http://www.newson6.com/story/15011834/public-told-not-to-swim-in-grand-lake

 

[inactive]

The lower Illinois river, right below the Tenkiller dam is pretty neat. There is a good little pool there that is great for swimming, and since the water is coming out of the bottom of the damn, it's pretty darn cold.

You may have some people out there fishing, but it sure is less crowded than the swim beaches I had seen on Skiatook, Grand, Eufaula, etc.

Park on one of the roads off of Highway 100 and it's a short little hike