There’s swimming, of course. At your local pool (search for local parks and rec departments with pools at the North Carolina Recreation & Parks Association Web site), at a trusted swimming hole (find 76 in North Carolina at SwimmingHoles.org), at the coast (find Outer Banks beaches here, Wilmington area beaches here and assorted other beaches here.

There’s paddling. If you have a canoe or kayak, check out our list below of 21 state parks that have canoe/kayak access. If you don’t have your own boat, there’s always our trusty list of 35 Places Where You Can Rent a Canoe or Kayak in the state. If you’re up for a guided trip — from a quiet journey through a black water swamp to a rollicking romp down Class II, III and IV water, check out this list of outfitters statewide.

Or maybe you’re just looking for an excuse to go wading. Saturday, get your feet wet in the cool waters of the New River during and Aquatic Sampling program at 1 p.m. (336.982.2587 for details on this trip, which meets at the Wagoner Access Area), while Sunday at 2 p.m. at Stone Mountain State Park there’s Aquatic Wild, a chance to poke about the East Prong of the Roaring River for wet wildlife.

Whichever wet option you chose, don’t forget the sunscreen, a hat, protective clothing, bug spray, perhaps a snack or two. And fun, don’t forget to have fun.

Enjoy!

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State Parks where you can float your boat

Piedmont

Eno River State Park – Canoe access, river fishing.
Falls Lake State Recreation Area – 10 boat ramps, privately operated marina nearby.
Hanging Rock State Park – Lake swimming and fishing, rowboat and canoe rentals; boat access to nearby river.
Jordan Lake State Recreation Area – Lake fishing and swimming, 32 boat ramps, privately operated marina nearby.
Kerr Lake State Recreation Area – Lake fishing, accessible fishing pier, 14 boat ramps, two privately operated marinas nearby.
Lake Norman State Park – Boat ramp, lake fishing. Rowboat, canoe and pedal boat rentals, swimming and fishing on 33-acre lake inside park.
Lumber River State Park – Central State natural and scenic 115-mile black-water river, 81 miles also designated national wild and scenic waters. Five canoe-in campsites, boat access.
Morrow Mountain State Park – Pool, boat ramp, lake fishing, canoe and rowboat rentals.
Pilot Mountain State Park – Two canoe-in campsites; river fishing, canoe access.
Coast/Coastal Plain

Carolina Beach State Park – Marina with concession area; river fishing from accessible dock. Boat ramps to river; intracoastal waterway and ocean minutes away.
Hammocks Beach State Park – Accessible only by boat: park operates a seasonal passenger ferry and there’s a canoe paddle trail.
Jockey’s Ridge State Park – Swimming, fishing, kayaking and sailboarding in Roanoke Sound.
Dismal Swamp State Park – Rent kayak and take a trip on the Dismal Swamp Canal.
Goose Creek State Park – Canoe access and trail, boat ramp, river fishing and swimming.
Jones Lake State Park – Lake swimming, fishing, canoe and pedal boat rentals. Access for boats with 10-horsepower motors and below.
Merchants Millpond State Park – Seven canoe-in campsites and three canoe-in group campsites. Lake fishing, canoe access, canoe trails, canoe rentals.
Medoc Mountain State Park – Canoe access, creek fishing.
Pettigrew State Park – Fishing pier, boat ramp.
Singletary Lake State Park – Lake fishing and swimming, canoe rentals.

Mountains

Lake James State Park – Two boat ramp areas, canoe rentals, lake fishing and swimming..
New River State Park – National Wild and Scenic River, more than 30 canoe-in tent campsites, canoe access, river fishing.

The post Resources for a steamy weekend of cool, wet fun appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Plan for today: Go paddling

Go paddling? In the winter? I don’t even have a boat. And further —

Tut tut! Before you continue your italicized protestations, hear us out. First, technically, it’s still fall; winter doesn’t start until shortly after midnight Thursday. And you don’t need your own boat. While most municipal, county and state park rentals are seasonal, several remain open year-round, operating under the 100-degree rule: If the combined air and water temperature is 100 degrees or more, you can take out a canoe or kayak. (If it’s less than 100 degrees, you probably don’t want to be on the water anyway. Raleigh’s Lake Johnson is one such 100-degree lake; if it’s, say, 60 degrees and the water temperature is 40, for $5 you can rent a canoe or kayak for an hour and paddle this 150-acre lake. $5 a boat — pretty cheap sanity-saving entertainment.

Now that the idea doesn’t seem so far-fetchedwhere can you rent a canoe or kayak this time of year? Check with your local boat-renting park or outfitter; our handy “35 Places to Rent a Canoe/Kayak in North Carolina” guide can help with that process.

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Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast, especially come summer. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy.
To help ease this trying transition from out-in-the-Sun-day to Mon-I-wish-I-were-back-in-the-sun-day, we’re running a new feature every Monday, at least during the summer, called 90-Second Escape. Essentially, it’s a 90-second mini-movie of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s out in the sun. Because there’s a good chance you might want to make such an escape yourself, we’ll include a resource list with each escape showing where and how to make it happen.

Today’s 90-Second Escape: Paddling Umstead State Park’s Big Lake.

As escapes go, this is about the cheapest 60 minutes you’ll find: At Umstead State Park’ Big Lake, $5 buys you an hour’s escape on the park’s somewhat whimsically named Big Lake. Whimsical because, at 55 acres, Big Lake is hardly that (nearby Lake Crabtree, for instance, is 520 acres, while Falls Lake  is 12,410 acres and Jordan Lake is 13,900 acres). But it does offer surprisingly big escape, especially considering it’s in one of North Carolina’s most popular state parks and borders busy Raleigh Durham International Airport.

The boat house is only open weekends and only from the first weekend of April through the second weekend of October. Rental hours are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

And if you can’t make it to Umstead, chances are you can get a similar deal on an escape at at state park near you: Eight parks in the North Carolina system rent boats: Cliffs of the Neuse, Dismal Swamp, Hammocks Beach, Hanging Rock, Jones Lake, Lake James, Lake Norman and Morrow Mountain, while Hammocks Beach rents through an outside organization.

In the meantime, enjoy this week’s 90-Second Escape.

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