Lake McConaughy, Nebraska


E-mail questions and comments to me, Robert V. Mitchell (Rob) at: TrvmitchT@TvcnT.com (remove the T's first)


Lake McConaughy is located east-southeast of Scotts Bluff, Nebraska. You can find information about it at the Nebraska Parks Web Site.

Lake McConaughy is behind a dam on the North Platte River and covers the town of Kingsley. It's pretty big for an inland, man-made lake. Since it's pretty straight when you're on one end of the lake you can't see the other end of the lake due to the earth's curvature. One of it's primary purposes is to store water for irrigation so it's level is dependent on the previous winter's upstream snowpack and the spring's and summer's weather in western Nebraska.

There's usually good wind on the lake and since the it isn't located near any major population center, it's rarely crowded, even on major holiday weekends. It's located in the sand hills so almost every inch of shoreline is part of a nice sandy beach. There are plenty of places to camp and picnic but the marina facilities and toilet facilities are limited. There are also several launching ramps but depending on the water level in the lake and moving sand, many of them can be too shallow to launch boats that draw more than a couple of feet. I'd recommend McConaughy to anyone who likes to sail.

I enjoy sailing at "Big Mac", but it's a long way to travel so I haven't been there much, lately. It has been on the Salty Dogs Sailing Club activities schedule and I've attended those. As part of those sailing weekends, I've had the opportunity to sail on several different sailboats. I've also taken my Catfish there but haven't taken the H240, yet. While there on one trip, the wind was blowing steadily out of the south. I was sailing the Catfish and was able to travel from the western end of the lake to the dam and back. Because I only had to tack once at the dam, I got a stiff neck from looking in the same direction all of the time. It was still fun.









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