Bureau of Land Management Project Underway
on the Southside of Henrys Lake
Last year, BLM began a renovation and camping improvement project at the Southside boat access area. The project began with the building of a two stall bathroom at the boat access, improving the road into the boat launch, and improving the slope of the access as well.
The process has begun to create designated camping sites on the south side of the road parallel to the lake, and remove overnight camping from the lake(north) side of the road. That will likely be completed next year. The north side would remain day use access for fishing.
The excitement this year was the bathroom! BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner for Upper Snake Office, Monica Zimmerman, reached out to local non-profits for some help in securing a local Driggs artist, Helen Seay who had some experience with bathroom interior artwork, completing three along the Teton River for IDFG. Both Henrys Lake Foundation and Henrys Fork Wildlife Alliance helped support the project here at Henrys Lake, and provided a list of species of birds and fish that were common at Henrys Lake for her scenes.
The project started in June, and was completed in July. Campers nearby had an opportunity to watch her mural project progress from beginning to end. One stall features aquatic themes and the other stall focuses on common birds seen at Henrys. Response from anglers and campers has been amazing! Henrys Lake Southside is becoming a destination location for a view of the beautiful bathrooms it sports!
More improvements to Southside are coming next year, including the campground area on south side of the road, the restoration of the north side of road for day use, and hopefully a Boat Wash Station funded by BLM. In the future, the Upper Snake Field Office will do some bank stabilization of the cliffs at Southside, and Henrys Lake Foundation hopes to partner with BLM on that restoration project, reducing siltation into the lake. For now, enjoy the now open and very popular bathrooms created by local artist of many talents, Helen Seay. Campground and boat launch at Southside are no-fee areas. Thank you BLM for a great start to the improvement project at Southside.
Mary VanFleet, HLF Board
