Valentine Lake Recreation Area

The Civilian Conservation Corps built this forty-six-acre lake in the 1930s, and nobody's changed the rule: no motors. Paddling and fishing only, which means the water stays quiet and the shoreline stays worth reaching. Fourteen campsites include six right on the water. Two fishing piers extend into the lake. A loop trail circles the perimeter. The real draw for distance hikers is the trailhead for the twenty-four-mile Wild Azalea National Recreation Trail, which starts here and threads through Kisatchie. It's a small lake built by hand labor during the Depression, and it works the way it was designed to work. You come here to paddle something that won't run you over, or to fish without a trolling motor growling past your line, or to camp where you can hear what a lakeshore actually sounds like. The azalea trail offers a longer commitment if you want it. Otherwise, you've got a loop, some shoreline, and a lake that does one thing well.