West Lake Park — Attraction in Rock Island

Cute little park where you can rent kayaks and pedal boats at a reasonable price. You can also use the launch pad to bring your own kayak to the lake and I saw some folks fishing here as well.

In order to enter the beach area, you have to stand in line to pay and for them to check your cooler as there is no alcohol allowed inside.

The intake was super unorganized- complete chaos. They definitely have zero interest in getting people in as efficiently as possible and you'll end up standing in line for a good 40 minutes (or more). There were two registers and plenty of people behind the counter but they would only address one family at a time. After you pay, you have to go through the gender- specific locker/shower rooms to get to the beach.

Once at the beach-there were some umbrellas and picnic tables where some families set up, others set up on the sand in front of the water.

The park also has a floating inflatable jungle gym for the kids and there are life vests on-site for the kids and mandatory for them to wear while using the jungle gym. The kids must stand in line to get a life jacket and this line's wait time can also be awhile.

The day we were there, I noticed there was only one lifeguard in this area and there are plenty of areas in the jungle gym where a kid could fall into the water and definitely struggle to get back on the floating gym and no one would know.

At some point- they made all the kids exit and turn in their life jackets. I think it was because there was a long line of kids wanting to get in and they were not seeing any kids coming out and needed to give others a turn. I was fine with that bc my kid had been there for an 1hr but if he had only been there for 10 mins and forced to exit, I'd be pretty upset, especially after standing in line to get in for 40 mins and 15 mins to get his...

The cabins are always a nice and quiet place to stay with a good view and lots to do. You can conveniently get some firewood ($6 or $7)from the office when you check in, and fire starters($4).

The pedal boats were fun and Isaiah from the boat house was very nice and helpful with getting us started on the pedal boats. Reasonably priced at $10 for 30 min, $15 for 1 hour. They also have kayaks but we did not have time for that.

The obstacle course on the beach is very fun for the kids and we liked that they have one for smaller kids and one for bigger kids(even 6ft tall teenagers!). Everyone wears a life jacket on there, even teenagers. For the smaller kids when they walk through the height thing they recommended if you are about half way between the blue arrows or lower that you stay on the little kid one and anyone above that can do the bigger one. The sand has a ton of rocks and is not at all comfortable to walk on like normal beach sand. There is a nice picnic area so you can bring your own food or they have concessions. Admission is only $5 for kids and $6 for adults

Those things might be on the FAQ on the website if they have one, IDK. But for the most part everyone there assumes you have been there before and they don't really inform you on how it works so hopefully this helps.

They have playgrounds throughout the park and some pavilions that you can rent, the one closest to the beach has its own playground, restrooms, fireplace, and grills.

They added a sidewalk around the lake by the cabins which makes it much easier to enjoy a relaxing stroll around the lake.

There is also a disc golf course which I cannot speak to if it is good or bad because I do not play but...

I've enjoyed this lake since the early 1980's. Not once was I ever bothered while enjoying a nice afternoon there. Today that all changed when we rented pedal boats. I pedaled across the lake with my family and once we reached the other side we decided to get close to the shore under the shade of the trees while taking a break out of the sun the rescue boat with some kid at the helm flew up on us to scold us for not being ten feet away from the shore. Apparently it was one of the many many "rules" they go through as you're filling the paperwork out for the pedal boat. When we didn't move fast enough for them they yelled at us. To be technical I was probably ten feet away from the shore the entire time. When I told the person at rental that I basically wasn't happy about the interaction they all gathered up and started to gossip about the situation and escalated the situation to the point where they threatened to call a ranger. What a joke! Never going to spend another dime here again on anything. Ruined the...