Lake Shawnee Adventure Cove — Local services in Topeka

Wow we had a great time here! My son loves beaches, and we just happened to find this little gem. It costs $2/person, and you can spend all day there. Water isn't very clear or anything, but good enough to have a good time! My optometrist recommends staying out of the lake water, but I'm sure he was just kidding, right?

We enjoyed the sand. No it's not perfect like the on an island or on the coasts, but a 4-year old tends to not mind about those details. He's focused on digging a trench, creating dams, and erecting a volcano. And the sand's composition and granularity was adequate enough to accomplish these very important tasks.

Although he was too short to play on the water playground, he found it hilarious when people feel into the water (which happened often). It basically looked like a ninja warrior course. Somewhat reminded me of some episodes of Wild and Crazy Kids on Nickelodeon in the 90s.

The cove has quite a bit of clay, which we used to fashion into some primitive stoneware and crude figurines. A few hours of sunshine dried them enough for us to take them home intact. My crafting skills have a lot of room for improvement. But the only critique that I got was "why does the cat have a hump?"

They have kayaks, paddle boats, and other equipment to rent for a very reasonable price. We spent $8 to use a kayak for an hour. Chasing geese gets tiring, but the giggles make it worth it. We spotted a young angler who made a nice catch!

The staff seemed very welcoming and there were lifeguards galore. They are very commanding, which might come off as rude, but I think you want that attribute in the people who are charged with ensuring your safety.

Overall, this is a great value for what you get here. Shawnee county has put something really nice here for locals (and visitors) to enjoy. Beware that there is very limited shade here, so plan to be...

We got here just after 2PM and got general admission for 4 and the park for 3. We were not informed until after the kids asked for life jackets that they only start at the top of the hour. This meant waiting 40 minutes to even be able to use the park as intended. There was not even 10 people here so they could have absolutely made an exception or at the very least informed us as we were paying...

Great staff, and a really nice beach swimming area, and some really cool inflatables, nice canoes and kayaks, and pedal boats to rent. Just hope the blue green algae doesn't mess with it too...