lake gaston

Ww love Lake Gaston so much we bought a house on the lake. The lake is huge! It's great for water skiing, wake boarding, canoes, kayaks, boats, jet skis...you name it. But the best fun ever is just to take a tube or a raft and just float in the water on a hot summer day.

I find Lake Gaston to be a great combination of relaxation and water activities. 20,000 acres of water, 350 miles of shore line. Obviously the summer months offer great boating, fishing and other water activities. But NC has very nice long springs and falls that extend the enjoyable season from April thru October. 60-90 mins from Durham and Raleigh - located on the NC/ VA boarder between I-85 & I-95

We found Lake Gaston back in the late 90's when visiiting our son and his family in Chapel Hill. Do not judge the Lake by the view from Route 85. We got off and travel the back roads and fell in love with the 37 mile long Lake. Rented a place for our children in Va and NC to visit each summer, finally boaught in 2007 and moved full time five years ago. Not a place to raise small children the schools are bad but great to retire to. Laid back, friendly, and more to do then you will want. Besides the Lake items others mention. There are many culbs to join and get involved with. You can be as busy as you want to be (sometimes to busy). Medical, shopping, and great resturants are an issue but metrto areas are only 1 1/2 hrs to Raleigh / Durham l Chapel Hill. with first rate Medical, food and cultural arts. Never to crowded and always friendly. Come for a visit and stay for a lifetime.

Ok I admit it a slight prejudice. We live here. My husband and I were fortunate to discover this lake six years ago while visiting our daughter in grad school at NC state. We fell in love with the beauty, serenity and laid back atmosphere of this lake, found a house and retired here full time 4 years ago. The shopping's not great and there aren't tons of restaurants, so don't come here if that's what you look for. But if you love the water, boating, fishing, swimming relaxing, beautiful sunsets and an unspoiled quiet location. this is the place.

We've always done our family reunions on the Bay and this year decided to try Lake Gaston because it was more centerally located for our dispersed family.The good: - Unspoiled and not crowded. On the water, you pass other boats, but there's pleanty of room to maneuver and lots of places to water ski, tube, and swim. Unlike going to the ocean or Bay, there is no traffic on the roads to Lake Gaston. - Pleanty of places to choose from to meet your groups needs: big and small, high end and budget - Water temperature is higher than you'd expect. We visited in mid June and the water temperature was perfect. - Lots of beautiful wildelife - birds, fish, deer, etc. - The people are really friendly. From the Marina to the grocery store, the locals seemed happy to see you.The other - Cell phone service is not good. - There's not alot to do on rainy day. The closet attractions we could find were very limited about 20-30 minutes away. - Not many grocery or other stores. The nearest places we could find other than convenience stores were two Food Lions, each about 20-30 minutes. Away. No one knew of a good place to by higher end food, better cuts of meat etc. - Not alot of resturants or bars. Those that were here are decent and moreeasily accessable by boat than car. - The water in the lake is mirky. I guess visibility is about 2 feet. You definately want to bathe after you spend time in the water. The water has a very slight, but typical lake odor. The bottomline: Lake Gaston is as advertised and a perfect place to spend time with the family. Teenagers might get bored after a couple of days, but they get bored almost everywhere.

The weekends we didn't have time for the beach we would take the boat to Lake Gaston for the day. Great lake for water skiing, tubing or just fishing. There's a gas station to gas up the boat and use the restroom if you don't want to jump over board. Take a picnic and enjoy the day.