Blue Marsh Lake

Really good place for folks to take a morning hike. Great challenging trails for mountain biking. Stumbled along a few sunflower patches that I look forward to seeing in the summer time. Only complaint is that the maps I’ve come across don’t do a good job of showing the elevation changes.

I would not recommend this place. People do NOT pick up after their dogs and so there is a lot of dog feces all over the place. The park RANGERS are on a high trip, they act like they are POLICE OFFICERS! One of the rangers HARASSED my friend to tears told her she had to leave the park immediately because her dog was not on a leash. He then threatened to call the police on her to intimidation her (yes police hurry lady with her dog not on a leash), he was yelling and screaming saying she needed to give her information to him now! Last time we checked you are nothing more than a security guard and have no authority. So we refused and got in our cars, ranger then FOLLOWED us all the way out of the park and continued to follow us for MILES away for the park. We started to get nervous at this point because he wouldn’t stop following us. We were about the call the police ourselves when he finally stopped following us. We called the office to report this person for harassment but we don’t believe anything was done about it. I would bet that if we were MEN he would not have HARASSED us the way he did.

Spent the day swimming and laying in the sun at Blue Marsh. A nice sized lake that has a beach and lake just large enough for boats and other water craft. A manmade lake built by the Army Engineers with well appointed buildings and well maintained roads. Lots of parking, even on a busy 4^th of July weekend. The sand part of the beach could be a bit bigger, but there is a lot of grassy area to throw down a blanket or chair. Plates from NJ, MD & PA makes it an easy spot to drive to, but just minutes to Reading for shopping and food. A quick 45 minute drive to Lancaster on easy roads. Bring some food to have a BBQ. Easy in and out for your boat on the other side of the lake. I hear there are places to rent boats, but did not find the location. Would not mind a return to rent a boat and maybe stay for a few days of R&R.

$ 3 per car to get in during the summer, free the rest of the year… plenty of picnic tables and BBQ areas, bring your bicycles and swimming gear! Only caveat: the maps are nearly useless and the toll booth operators are not much help either.

I must be an old fart because I remember when the lake was being built. Once it opened it provided a great recreational outlet for boaters, fishing, swimmers, picnickers and more.
The lake is actually not very large but for Reading and surrounding areas it provides plenty of space for swimming and boating. The grounds of the lake property have a few picnic shelters and individual picnic shelters. There’s a small beach for swimming. And plenty of grassy area to just lay out and bask in the sun.
I always found the hiking trails to be a little disappointing but there is plenty of space to do some kite flying and usually some good wind conditions for it.
Definitely worth checking out if you have the free time.

Power boaters routinely violate the no wake zones putting paddlers in danger. Many kayakers won’t go near this lake.

We spent the afternoon here over the weekend. Overall my experience wasn’t bad, though I’m not sure I’ll be returning. They had decent enough bathrooms and changing rooms. Not overly clean but better then I’ve seen in some restaurants. There was a small play area and plenty of picnic tables.
The beach itself was very small but clean. The water didn’t look as clean as I had expected it to but not so bad that I wasn’t willing to go into it. My biggest problem with the place was the bees. They were all over the place and I actually ended up being stung by one within 10 minutes of arriving. This combined with the small size of the beach will probably keep me from coming back.

We decided swimming would be fun, and we werent wrong. Blue marsh has a lot of stuff to do and a massive area to do it in. You can hike, bike, ride horses, swim, boat.
I did find the water to be fairly clean and clear. We both even got nibbled on by some fish!
The swim area does have a beach complete with sand, but we went around the corner to a small inlet at the end of a trail and swam where there were no people.
Its a nice day trip. Check it out.

We used to visit this place all the time as kids. Over the years the place just seemed to get dirtier and dirtier (more trash on the beach and things floating in the water) until we just didn’t want to come back. Let’s hope it’s a bit cleaner now!

Lots to do here — hiking, biking, boating, whatever. Great trails, 30 mile loop.
Supposedly the remnants of the town that they flooded to create the lake are still under the water.