How Low is the Water Level in Lake San Marcos?

Blue Heron Lake San Marcos

Blue Heron sitting atop the dam at Lake San Marcos.

I took a picture of this blue heron today, Sunday, October 26, 2014, sitting on the dam of Lake San Marcos to put things in prospective. I also measured how low the water level was with a ruler. Answer, 20 inches. I just had to do this post since someone last week posted it was 5 feet down.

Lake San Marcos from the bridge south to Sunrise Point is only about 7 foot deep when totally full. It could never be down 5 foot. The mall coves are about 6 foot deep also. The aforementioned part of the lake is graded pretty much like a pie pan. “Very boring if you are a fisherman.” Going south from Sunrise Point to the picnic grounds, the depth increases gradually to about 14 feet. From the picnic grounds to the dam, it increases to about 26 feet. The original lake was about 48 feet before it became burdened with sediment.

Good news is that it will not take 20″ of rain to fill the lake. Because of the very large water shed area that runs into San Marcos Creek and then into the lake, just a few inches will send our lake over the spillway again as it does every winter.