When my dad and I first drove into Inks Lake, the first impression was that the park design was horrible. This was upon receiving the map. When we drove off to the camping site, my dad found my directions weird and funny (left, left, left, left, right, left, left, left) but they were all correct. When we settled down, marked up the camping site, we drove off for our first viewpoint: Devil’s Waterhole.

When we got there, we were greeted by the most beautiful scene. I could not resist climbing, so I did. It was super! We went to sleep in our Mini RV, which was transformed from a regular van (I will have more about that coming up). The next morning, we decided to go canoeing.

So for the next hour, we went down to the other side of the lake all the way to Devil’s Waterhole, and then chased some birds and flamingos and some long-legged birds down the other side, and then back. When I was going to the restroom when we had stood back on solid ground, my dad decided to try out a canoe.

The reason for this was because he was thinking of buying one. But one tiny little circle around the dock arose my suspicions. I decided to give it a shot myself. I rowed around the dock. Not hard, but definitely not boring! So we pushed and haggled and pulled and squeezed, and in the end, we came up with this: we were going to rent one 1-person canoe for one hour, as it said on the paperwork. But, we were really going to rent two 1-person boats for half-an-hour.

So I flung myself in and zoomed there and back. It was amazing! And it was the FIRST time I had gone on a kayak. The man who controlled the dock said I did superior, and my dad even limped into the car to take some pictures with his long camera.

I kayaked on my first try! Even a passerby said I did great! I floated swiftly on that dark black lake.

So now I know why they call it Inks Lake.