South Dakota's state parks and recreation areas enjoyed a general increase in use in 2010. The statewide system enjoyed a 1.5% increase in visitorship, with Game Fish & Parks recording 6.88 million visits to their great outdoor facilities. 6.88 million: that's every South Dakotan going to a state park eight times, plus a few of us going extra.
Here at Lake Herman, I find some good news and some bad news. The good news: My home lake has the fifteenth-most popular state park in South Dakota. Take out the big fishing sites along the Missouri River, and Lake Herman State Park is the sixth-most popular GF&P site, behind Custer, Angostura, Roy Lake, Newton Hills, and Lake Vermillion. Lake Herman State Park had over 115,000 visitors last year (the Heidelberger family counts for about 250 of those tallies... if GF&P hits the clicker when we bike through!). That's just little behind Lake Vermillion (117,000) and Newton Hills (120,000), both of which are a little closer to the teeming masses of the Sioux Falls metroplex. Perhaps when our Sioux Falls neighbors want to get away, they like just a little more distance between themselves and the big city.
On the downside, Lake Herman State Park saw one of the steeper declines in visitors. While 36 out of 59 GF&P sites saw visitors increase from 2009 to 2010, Lake Herman State Park saw over 8,000 fewer visitors, a drop of 6.8% from 2009. Walker's Point Recreation Area over on Lake Madison saw a similar numerical decline, from 65,200 in 2009 to 57,300 in 2010, which adds up to a 12.1% decline.
Hmm... over 16,000 fewer visitors to the two state parks in Lake County. Maybe the fact that Madison's sales tax revenue stayed flat from 2009 to 2010 actually indicates we made out pretty well for the year!
Here's the full table for 2009 and 2010 visitation at the parks and recreation areas managed by South Dakota Game Fish & Parks. See how you favorite state campground or fishing hole measured up!
| JANUARY - DECEMBER 2010 VISITATION COMPARISON | ||||
| Dist | Park | 2009 | 2010 | Change |
| 1 | Roy Lake | 182,840 | 181,214 | -0.9% |
| Sica Hollow | 28,285 | 27,670 | -2.2% | |
| 211,125 | 208,884 | -1.1% | ||
| 2 | Richmond Lake | 56,236 | 52,384 | -6.8% |
| Mina Lake | 39,272 | 44,034 | 12.1% | |
| Lake Louise | 37,381 | 38,744 | 3.6% | |
| Fisher Grove | 18,907 | 20,066 | 6.1% | |
| Fort Sisseton | 56,044 | 65,081 | 16.1% | |
| 207,840 | 220,309 | 6.0% | ||
| 3 | Sandy Shore | 35,364 | 36,644 | 3.6% |
| Hartford Beach | 69,988 | 71,305 | 1.9% | |
| Lake Cochrane | 30,906 | 32,931 | 6.6% | |
| Pelican South | 52,692 | 54,195 | 2.9% | |
| Pickerel Lake | 55,518 | 61,186 | 10.2% | |
| 244,468 | 256,261 | 4.8% | ||
| 4 | Oakwood Lakes | 81,904 | 82,850 | 1.2% |
| Lake Poinsett | 63,628 | 65,071 | 2.3% | |
| Lake Thompson | 50,160 | 62,622 | 24.8% | |
| 195,692 | 210,543 | 7.6% | ||
| 5 | Lake Herman | 123,533 | 115,171 | -6.8% |
| Walkers Point | 65,183 | 57,294 | -12.1% | |
| 188,716 | 172,465 | -8.6% | ||
| 6 | Snake Creek | 162,288 | 184,250 | 13.5% |
| Platte Creek | 58,870 | 54,859 | -6.8% | |
| Burke Lake | 19,614 | 19,760 | 0.7% | |
| Buryanek | 46,268 | 36,026 | -22.1% | |
| 287,040 | 294,895 | 2.7% | ||
| 7 | Palisades | 69,630 | 69,460 | -0.2% |
| Lake Vermillion | 110,559 | 116,767 | 5.6% | |
| Big Sioux | 68,217 | 66,191 | -3.0% | |
| Beaver Creek | 31,918 | 31,236 | -2.1% | |
| 280,324 | 283,654 | 1.2% | ||
| 8 | Newton Hills | 121,318 | 120,097 | -1.0% |
| Lake Alvin | 39,650 | 40,711 | 2.7% | |
| Union Grove | 17,419 | 20,151 | 15.7% | |
| Adams | 64,666 | 66,221 | 2.4% | |
| Spirit Mound | 18,596 | 16,349 | -12.1% | |
| 261,649 | 263,529 | 0.7% | ||
| 9 | Lewis & Clark | 939,774 | 966,318 | 2.8% |
| Springfield | 100,688 | 103,486 | 2.8% | |
| Chief White Crane | 114,665 | 117,727 | 2.7% | |
| Pierson Ranch | 66,766 | 68,470 | 2.6% | |
| 1,221,893 | 1,256,001 | 2.8% | ||
| 10 | North Point | 144,202 | 133,641 | -7.3% |
| North Wheeler | 37,953 | 39,602 | 4.3% | |
| Pease Creek | 16,047 | 18,856 | 17.5% | |
| Randall Creek | 43,153 | 69,751 | 61.6% | |
| Ft. Randall Boat Club | 9,011 | 8,628 | -4.3% | |
| 250,366 | 270,478 | 8.0% | ||
| 11 | Farm Island | 142,494 | 146,473 | 2.8% |
| West Bend | 30,307 | 29,675 | -2.1% | |
| 172,801 | 176,148 | 1.9% | ||
| 12 | Oahe Downstream | 306,922 | 307,525 | 0.2% |
| LaFramboise Island | 18,340 | 17,022 | -7.2% | |
| Cow Creek | 242,541 | 238,143 | -1.8% | |
| Okobojo Point | 27,137 | 32,725 | 20.6% | |
| Spring Creek | 134,047 | 119,907 | -10.5% | |
| 728,987 | 715,322 | -1.9% | ||
| 13 | West Whitlock | 87,148 | 81,381 | -6.6% |
| Lake Hiddenwood | 13,967 | 18,902 | 35.3% | |
| Swan Creek | 17,782 | 25,626 | 44.1% | |
| Indian Creek | 101,910 | 117,095 | 14.9% | |
| Revheim Bay | 36,180 | 45,910 | 26.9% | |
| West Pollock | 31,054 | 35,709 | 15.0% | |
| 288,041 | 324,623 | 12.7% | ||
| 14 | Bear Butte | 33,285 | 35,211 | 5.8% |
| Rocky Point | 69,346 | 73,103 | 5.4% | |
| 102,631 | 108,314 | 5.5% | ||
| 15 | Shadehill | 67,539 | 59,127 | -12.5% |
| Llewellyn Johns | 6,967 | 4,300 | -38.3% | |
| Little Moreau | 7,183 | 5,144 | -28.4% | |
| 81,689 | 68,571 | -16.1% | ||
| 16 | Custer | 1,833,978 | 1,847,764 | 0.8% |
| 1,833,978 | 1,847,764 | 0.8% | ||
| 17 | Angostura | 216,190 | 199,880 | -7.5% |
| 216,190 | 199,880 | -7.5% | ||
| TOTALS: | 6,773,430 | 6,877,641 | 1.5% | |
Could the lower campground become part of the lake for the better part of year have something to do with that? Also a few of the best fishing spots were hard to reach with high water.
How's that lake looking?
I wondered that... although I didn't think we lost that many campsites, just a couple by the playground for a few weeks. I also wondered if Lake Herman was unique in experiencing problems with flooding; after all, we had rainy weather all over the place, didn't we?
Current lake status: the lower campground is drying out! Kids can get to that playground. Lake level is down a couple feet (eyeball guess) from the max at the end of March.
Two summers ago we took our family camping at Lake Herman. The first night we were "scolded" 3 times before 10pm. Our kids couldn't ride their electric scooter or they couldn't play bean bag toss after 10. No walking around the park after dark. Overall we were not impressed with camping there. It was expensive for our family when you can camp at Flandreau City Park for $10 a night and not worry about being too loud.