Boat Ramps listed below are OPEN, all others are closed.
Welch Park
Apache Hills,
Birch Creek Forest Subdivision
Lake Somerville Marina and Campground
Lake Somerville Marina and Campground and Welch Park are OPEN for camping.
Rocky park, Yegua park, Birch Creek State Park, Nails Creek State Park and Big Creek Park are CLOSED.
Pecan Lake is CLOSED.

Thanks a bunch for the info.

Is this launch public?

yes BCF ramp is open but It is hard to find the first time! see google map here: https://goo.gl/maps/7fmt6

Is BCF ramp a public ramp with truck and boat trailer parking?

yes bcf ramp is public but with limited parking

As of this morning Friday September 18th, 2015 the boat ramp at the Nails Creek unit of Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway is open. It is the only part of the whole complex that is open currently. All other areas of the state park (Birch creek unit, the trailway and Nails creek unit) are still being evaluated for flood damage and safety issues. Many of the large trees that died in the flooded parks and on the trailway are at risk of falling so until that risk is dealt with those parts of the state park will remain closed. Most likely the park will open back up in stages starting in October and by early next year be near full operational.

Nails Creek Park

We are back in business at the Nails Creek boat ramp and up the creeks!

Just an FYI

The corp has the the Yegua Creeek Park ramps listed as open on there site now. Which the back ramp at Yegua is my preferred ramp. Will be out there this Friday. Always enjoy your posts.

Jeff

Yep, I launched my kayak there on Saturday.

I asked the park director John Rorie when he expected Newmans Bottom rec area on the Yegua to be open again..

Inquiring minds want to know.. thousands of fishermen are asking when Newmans will be opened again..

John's response is as follows..

The Corps is predicting we will get 6 feet out of the last rain which will put us at 10 feet high again. The Newman Bottom access road looks like the Gulf of Mexico again. Any more rain in the next month would just add to the delay. I would predict that the road will not be open until sometime in the spring.

Hard to be more specific than that but realistically we could be longer than that depending on how wet of a winter we have and how high the lake gets again. We also have a bad culvert on that road that is really big that needs repair. The only way it has survived is us patching it after it goes under everytime, but without being able to get to it could spell disaster should we get another big surge of water.

Sorry to be the messenger with the bad news.

John

Lake Somerville State Park update,
I called the park director to get the latest information on the park & trailway. Of most importance to most of you here on this TFF topic is access to Newmans Bottom. Since all of the trailway is closed currently the road leading to Newmans Bottom is closed too. The damage from the summer and fall flooding washed out the culvert on the road right before the parking area @ Newmans & the trailway bridge. Repairs are just about complete on the road so they are waiting on another safety inspection of the road and the little bridge just inside the gate at the end of CR140. The park director was pretty confident that Newmans will be opening soon and maybe sometime in the next few days.

Now to the bad news.. since the trailway is closed hiking down to Newmans is not permitted and the park police/rangers are probably going to start issuing citations to those of you who enter the closed area of the park on foot. The same goes for Nails creek on CR125 (downstream is the closed part of the trailway). Cedar creek @ Flag pond/CR125 is open downstream for a good distance before it gets to the state park which is closed.

The good news.. Kayakers/boaters can access the state park part of these three creeks from the lake by launching @ Nails Creek park boat ramp.

The hold up for much of the rest of the park is the many dead trees and their removal. 80% of birch creek park is closed due to the many dead or dying trees. The forest service has done their evaluation and the work has begun but the flooding in the fall set them back again until very recently.

Most all of the assessments of the flood damage throughout the state park have been completed and funds for repairs are pending. The decisions about the order & priority of repairs are still being discussed. Decision makers are a little gun shy about moving too quickly in rebuilding into certain areas that continue to be flood prone. We do learn from these types of events and try rebuilding to better fit the current realities.

The first step in making repairs to the park deals with the safety of all concerned and that means that the 200-plus dead trees have to be brought down. Crews are working now to make that part happen ASAP.