Tucked Away in Goshen County, Hawk Springs Reservoir is a favorite among anglers and boaters from Wyoming and Nebraska looking to get outside, but hoping to avoid huge crowds in more prominent areas.
This year, however, it’s already so low that Wyoming State Parks probably won’t bother to set out summertime boat docks there.
And there’s concern that it could all but dry up completely before summer’s over.
The reservoir is part of the Hawk Springs Recreation Area. It’s one of Wyoming’s smaller state parks and includes 24 primitive campsites.
It’s roughly an hour and a half away from Guernsey State Park, where Cassie Wells is the state park superintendent.
Wells told Cowboy State Daily that for Wyoming and Nebraska residents who enjoy Hawk Springs, the time is short.
“If you want to come up and camp and try fishing you can do that until the water goes down,” she said.
Completely Gone?
While Wyoming State Parks runs the campgrounds at Hawk Springs, the water is controlled by the Horse Creek Conservation District.
Over the coming weeks, the reservoir will be likely be drawn down to “minimum pool,” or about 1,700 acre-feet of water, conservation district secretary-treasurer Diana Guest told Cowboy State Daily.
An acre-foot is the amount of water it would take to flood an acre of land to the depth of a foot.
“We had very little inflow into the reservoir this winter” and farms downstream are thirsty, she said.
There are 85 farms below the reservoir with irrigation rights for watering alfalfa, corn, beans and other crops, Guest said.
Even with the reservoir set to be drawn down to a bare minimum, there won’t be enough water to cover all of the irrigation rights, she noted.
“You can start a crop (with the available water in the reservoir) but you can’t finish it. So, we have to rely on Mother Nature to provide enough additional moisture,” she said.
The reservoir was built on top of natural springs in the early 1900s, and there are pre-existing water rights to the springs.
If those water rights reserves have to be tapped into, it could all but completely dry up Hawk Springs Reservoir, she said.
“I’ve been with the conservation district for 34 seasons, and we’ve never had one this bad,” Guest said.
Anglers Hideaway
Wells said if the fishing at Hawk Springs is ruined this year, it would be a huge disappointment for anglers who come from as far away as Cheyenne and Pine Bluffs.
Angler Roy White of Cheyenne has fished at Hawk Springs numerous times. It’s a good spot for walleye, crappie, catfish, perch, carp and largemouth bass, he told Cowboy State Daily.
Hawk Springs always drops low during the spring and early summer and sometimes that “scares people,” he said.
“But most of the time in the fall and winter, it’ll bounce back, if Mother Nature decides to give us some moisture,” White added.
He’s not planning to go fishing at Hawks Springs anytime soon.
“Usually, this time of year when the water gets low, I don’t go bother the lake because there’s probably already a lot of fishermen on it,” he said.
“But you have to work for them (the fish), because the water gets warm and they’re pretty finicky,” he added.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
