Ramsey Creek Park — Attraction in Cornelius

This place is terrible. We drove up late this afternoon specifically to go to the beach. Just after paying $10 to get in, we were stopped by a Park Ranger who diverted us to a secondary lot. I politely asked her if we could please drive down to the main lot so our kids (who are 2 and 4 and desperately had to go to the bathroom) could use the facilities, and I'd drive right back up after dropping them, and park in the secondary lot. Rudely, after telling us the lot was full and there was "no way she was letting us go down there and do that", she said no. My wife then pleaded with her for a few seconds, hoping to avert an accident as it is not a short walk, especially with a 2 and 4 year old. After realizing there was no hope reasoning with this nasty person who would rather see 2 kids have accidents than someone not park in her lot, I pulled off to the side so my wife could get the kids out and run all the way down the street to the bathrooms. After I parked the attendant in the lot said there was no reason the Ranger couldn't let me down to drop my wife and kids at the bathroom. When I walked by the Park Ranger I told her what the attendant said. The Ranger then proceeded to initiate a shouting match with myself and the lot attendant. Once I reached the main lot, it was half empty and there was really no reason I shouldn't have been able to park down there, much less drop my wife and kids off. I have previously volunteered at state parks in Florida for years, and if a Park Ranger ever spoke to a patron like that, they'd be fired immediately.

Oh, and the beach. This is the poorest excuse for a beach I've ever been to. You can't actually swim in it because besides there being a million people crammed in, it's only 3 ft deep, the rocky bottom is terribly painful, and the entire water area is roped off and only goes out about 20 feet from the shoreline. Horrible experience, complete ripoff and total waste of time. Do yourself a favor and go find...

The park itself was beautiful and well-maintained, and we were excited to spend the day there celebrating my sister’s birthday with a family boating trip. We brought our boat all the way from Tennessee and launched from the ramp around 11 a.m.

Unfortunately, our experience was negatively impacted by an interaction with a park ranger when we returned around 6 p.m. The ranger approached us and repeatedly accused us of operating a commercial charter, despite my clear explanation that we were simply out with family and friends. Even after clarifying multiple times that this was a private outing, the ranger continued to press the issue and became increasingly confrontational.

After about 10 minutes of back and forth, the ranger finally left, but the situation didn’t end there. While we were cleaning the boat in the trailer parking area, a police officer arrived and ran our vehicle tags. It seemed like an unnecessary escalation, and while they eventually left without further incident, the whole experience felt aggressive and left a bad impression.

I understand and respect the park’s policy on commercial charters, but the way the situation was handled felt excessive and made what should have been a fun family day into a stressful one. I hope the park considers training staff on how to approach these situations with more professionalism...

Disappointing for being one of the only places on Lake Norman that you can publicly swim. If you're outside of the county, it's $15 just to get it.

The swimming area is so small for the vast amount of people that show up and is completely covered in rocks that hurt your feet to walk on. The deepest part of the fenced in swimming area is about 2 feet deep so you basically just have to sit on the rocks in order to "swim".

The lifeguards were rude and whistled for every inference instead of explaining what the rules were upon entry. Here are some of them: no goggles with the nose attachment, no floaties, and no touching yellow barrier. Also, the guards were blasting music so much you couldn't even hear yourself think. I wish they could have at least put on the clean version of songs so that it could remain as family friendly as advertised.

The sand area was not real beach sand so putting an umbrella in was nearly impossible.

The bathrooms were disgusting and looked like they hadn't been cleaned in weeks.

The only positive was that their playground was shaded. We made the best of the experience, but we won't be coming back to pay $15 just for...