Selkirk Shores State Park

Hi Blog! On Saturday, August 23, 2014, we decided to leave the truck in camp and ride our bikes over to Selkirk Shores State Park. Tonight is "Halloween in August" at the campground and the place is filling up fast. We were afraid if we moved Great White there would be no parking left when we returned, so we took our bikes. Don't worry, we intend to be back in time for all the festivities, but we'll save all of that for another blog. Here is a recap of our adventure.

Just after leaving the campground, we crossed over the Salmon River, one of the best salmon fishing rivers in New York. We are looking downstream toward Lake Ontario. We'll be spending the next couple of days on the Salmon River, one day to kayak the estuary and the next to do a little fly fishing, but we'll save all that for another blog or two.

While the flow on the Salmon River is high at this time of year due to dam releases, this section is very wide and braided making it a great place to poke around via kayak.

Lucky for us, New York State parks don't charge visitors who arrive by bicycle.  We'll have to remember that for the next time we visit a New York state park.  Here is the view as we approach the beach area where the Grindstone Creek empties into Lake Ontario.  If you look really closely, you can see the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generator.

Here is the view up the creek from the beach.

The current from the creek rushes into the lake, making a really cool ripple pattern on the surface:

Unfortunately, the beach at Selkirk Shores State Park is no longer open to swimming. The state decided to save money by not maintaining the beach area. All of the sand has since been washed away by various storms.

However, you can still fish from the jetty.  Here is the view from the jetty, back toward our campground.

Here Kathy poses with the Selkirk Shores logo painted on the jetty.  Out there on the far side of the lake is the home of Sir William and his family.

We cycled all through the park and the campground.  We stopped at the Pine Grove boat launch. Here is a picture of the Selkirk Lighthouse.  This area of the Salmon River is known at Port Ontario.  However, a commercial port never really developed here. There is just a small village and private boat dock.

We were really intrigued by the lighthouse and figured out a way to ride our bikes over and take a closer look. The Selkirk Lighthouse is located at the mouth of the Salmon River. It is one of only four lighthouses in the United States that retains its original bird-cage lantern.  It happened to retain it because, while it and other lighthouses were scheduled to be refurbished and the bird-cage structure replaced, this lighthouse was decommissioned before the refurbishment was done and therefore escaped the change.

Commerce was booming at the time the lighthouse was constructed. Two piers were built at the mouth of the Salmon River to improve the harbor. A canal was proposed to connect the Salmon River to Lake Oneida and the Erie Canal. Unfortunately, the canal was never built, and Selkirk faded in importance. With an official beacon no longer justified, the lighthouse was deactivated in 1858. Port Ontario is now a sleepy little fishing community.

This photo is south across the Salmon River.  If you look closely in the center of the photo, on the far bank of the river is the Pine Grove boat launch that we visited.

We finished our bike ride in plenty of time to attend the costume contest and get ready for the Trick'or'Treaters.  More on that in the next blog.