Lake Georgetown Review

Due to the beautiful aqua colored deep water, the rocky shore and massive size, Lake Travis is my personal favorite lake to visit on a hot summer day while out boating with other +Temptoy owners and renters. However, the extreme Texas Drought and the lack of open boat ramps has caused me to look at other bodies of water. Lake Austin is always an option since it is a constant level lake but it is growing increasingly busy and the hydrilla does not seem to be letting up.

Recently, my family and I decided we would give Lake Georgetown a try. Here is my take on what we experienced.

Distance from Austin: 8 out of 10
Lake Georgetown was easy to get to. From Austin, I took Parmer until it turned into Ronald Reagan Blvd (nice road with beautiful hills by the way) then took a right on FM3405 and followed the signs to Russell Park.

Bottom Line: Not too far but far enough to get away from the hustle and bustle.

Facilities: 7 out of 10

Russell Park had bathrooms, a very open 4 lane boat ramp and plenty of available covered areas for a picnic. However, nothing was even remotely close to the water. I am sure that this is in large part due to the drought. However, they could have at least allowed us to take our portable grill to the shoreline. This is forbidden as we were told that we would be fined if we brought our small grill down to the shore. We settled for setting up on the shoreline, letting the kids swim and then one of us schlepped up to an open grill provided by the park (200 yards away - I drove the truck to an open spot) to cook the food and then schlepped it back down once cooked in the hopes that it would still be warm by the time i reached the shore where everyone was.

Additionally, Russell Park lacked any area for us to beach the boat. We had to anchor the boat off the shore a bit due to the high wind and the rocks in shallow water.

Bottom Line: Plenty of areas to picnic and clean bathrooms but distances from picnic area to shore and lack of an actual beach made room for improvement.

Beauty: 9 out of 10
Just like Lake Travis, Lake Georgetown had a similar color water. I think this has to do with the rock bed versus mud. The lake had many cliffs and the lack of houses lining the shore made it seem more serene.

Bottom Line: If you are like me, you love the aqua color of water in lakes where the bottom is rock lined versus mud. Lake Georgetown will not disappoint. No houses on the shore = more nature.

Open Spaces for Boating: 7 out of 10
This is one of my main reasons for visiting Lake Georgetown. Before lunch, it was quiet and pretty open. Unfortunately, after lunch, the Lake was overflowing with boat traffic. Granted, Lake Georgetown had less traffic than Travis but a whole lot more than I thought it would have. The four lane ramp at Russell Park stayed busy and we had trouble finding a quiet area where we could tube behind the boat without worrying about the kids getting run over.

Bottom Line: Do all your boating prior to lunch. Although, the lake is large enough that even after lunch, we still found room for tubing.

Lake Level: 9 out of 10
While we were there the lake was down 14 feet from its normal 791 feet (Current Levels). Aside from the distance from shore to the facilities, this was not noticeable. I do not know if it is the fact that this was my first visit to Lake Georgetown but while on the boat, I did not notice any issue with the water level.

Bottom Line: 14' shy of the full pool amount of 791' but unnoticeable. Still deep enough to do a back flip off the back of the boat.

In conclusion, Lake Georgetown is a wonderful lake to visit if you would like to experience a Central Texas Lake. This beautiful body of water shares many similarities with Lake Travis.  If you want to give the lake a try but do not have a boat you can always rent one from Temptoy. At the time this post was written, Temptoy has two boats that can be rented on Lake Georgetown. Zack Pennell has his 2008 Centurion ENZO 240 which comes with a captain and free lessons and seats 16 people or you can go with a smaller more intimate watercraft with Wayne Turners Mini Power Boat. Regardless, I hope to see you out on one of our states beautiful resources sometime.

Dustin