Jones Lake State Park

Located in Bladen County 40 miles southeast of Fayetteville, Jones Lake State Park opened as the first state park to welcome Black Americans and has since been a community destination for picnicking, swimming, hiking, and paddling. Tea-colored waters hide the shallow depth of the lake, which reaches to just 8 feet. Jones Lake and the adjacent Salters Lake are two of the mysterious geological formations known as Carolina bays, a series of elliptical depressions along the Atlantic coast, the origins of which are unknown.