Lake Lanier Georgia - Lake Lanier Drought Marinas Parks

Quarterdeck, one of Lake Lanier's few restaurants actually on the lake has just closed.

Jeff Hills and his wife Alina, who also own the Flowery Branch Yacht Club have decided to focus on just the one business.

Sometimes a great picture can really say more than a thousand words.

Why is Lake Lanier having such trouble supplying water to those people who need it?

Take a look at this map and the answer becomes clear...

Lake Lanier's Corps of Engineers have their heads in the sand, and they may soon have their day in court too. The Corps has decided that the solution to Lake Lanier's crisis to increase the flow out of the lake.

Wow - that was quite a lot of work, but finally we've managed to photograph and get details on every park around Lake Lanier.

We've added phone numbers, photos and details of the facilities at each park. In the next week of so we're also going to be adding directions

Looks like the announcement that Lake Lanier may drop another 5 to 15 feet and that Lake Allatoon may soon be empty is having an impact. News outlets and congressmen are finally realizing that this could be a pretty serious situation.

1. It doesn't rain any more. We're 18 inches down on where we should be for the year. Streams and rivers entering the lake are headed for record lows.

Think the lake is looking a little dirty? Nows your chance to help out. The Lake Lanier Association's 19th Annual Shore Sweep will be on September 29, 2007 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Lake Lanier is already lower than it has been for several years and the Access North Georgia is reporting that Lake Lanier’s Corps of Engineers project manager Jonathan Davis expects the lake to fall five more feet in the next month:

"A month from now, by the middle of October, if we stay with the inflows I read during this meeting, we could be down another five feet. We could be down to 1055 [feet about sea level], the lake has been below 1052, I think that's the historic low."

Lake water levels at this time of year are normally around 1067. If Lake Lanier really does fall that far, we'd be left with only nine parks with open boat ramps. Around forty parks would be forced to close their ramps. Click here to keep up-to-date on which boat ramps are open.

Every now and again we get requests to add more information to the site and one of the most frequent requests has been to show gas prices at marinas on Lake Lanier.

Consider it done.

Click on "Gas Prices at Lake Lanier Marinas" on the right-hand menu and you'll see a list of prices at all 10 marinas on the lake. Prices for regular 89 Octane gas vary from $3.69 to $4.19 per gallon so its certainly worth taking a look.

We call the marinas every week to make sure you only see the most up-to-date prices:

• What are the most popular restaurants and marinas on the lake?
• What's the best place on the lake to fish?
• What are the best and worst things about Lake Lanier?

We aimed to answer all these questions and more via the 1st Annual Lake Lanier Survey.

Read on to find out the results...

Lake Lanier will host a Bluegrass music festival on September 20th.

Grass in the Grove features several local bands and will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Who's Playing at the Grass in the Grove?

The festival will feature traditional bluegrass bands and contemporary bluegrass bands, including Honi Deaton and Dream, Hardline Drive, Steel String Session, Georgia Mudcats, The Suggins Brothers and The Harmon Family. The full schedule is:

• 11:00 Steel String Session
  
• 12:15 Harmon Family
  
• 1:30 Suggins Brothers
  
• 2:45 Hardline Drive
  
• 4:00 GA Mudcats
  
• 5:15 Honi Deaton and Dream

Where is the Festival?

Shady Grove Campground is located on Lake Lanier at 7800 Shadburn Ferry Rd. Cumming, GA 30041. The entry fee will be $10 per vehicle. RV and tent campsites will be available. To receive more information, call the Forsyth County Parks and Recreation Department at 770.781.2217.

Boats are welcome to anchor in any of the coves outside of the park for a unique musical experience on Lake Lanier.

We're delighted to offer a new free service to our readers - get free Lake Lanier Fishing reports sent to your email every week.

All you need to do is enter your email below and you'll receive updates by email in the middle of every week.

Last year the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival attracted over 4000 people to Lake Lanier and the same number or more expected for this years festival on Saturday.

The festival runs from 9 to 5 with races and plenty of activities to keep kids interested including dances, inflatable bouncers, prizes, kites and temporary tattoos.

Clarks Bridge Park will be closed from about 4:00 Saturday morning until late afternoon.

The Department of Natural Resources operate as law enforcement on Lake Lanier. They gave out 6 citations for Boating Under the Influence over Labor Day including one to a boater who drove his straight into a bridge.

The 18-foot houseboat crashed into Shoal Creek Bridge so heavily that it would have sunk if DNR hadn't come to the rescue.