City of Topeka- Parks and Recreation Reviews

It's a really nice place to relax and enjoy the day

Ted Ensley Garden is absolutely gorgeous especially in Spring! Bravo to Park & Rec Dept. 2018, another Successful year of Gardening. I salute YOU ALL.

Pleasantly surprised the restrooms were open! Clean & heated!! Enjoying the warm days while we can!! Thx

A favorite place we visit weekly! The walking trail is fully paved the entire 7 miles around the lake, and easily navigated when using a wheelchair. Many accessible floating docks are available to fish or launch a kayak. Grills, picnick tables, playgrounds, a pavillion, and trash receptacles can be found throughout the area. Simply put, a beautiful place to enjoy with friends & family. A real gem to be grateful for!!!

I went there to pick up my nieces from a retreat with there mother and I must say the area was real nice. I was only there for 15-minute and that was enough to wish I had more time to look around but will be back next year I hope.

Nice place for all sorts of outdoor activities. There is a big problem with blue green algae so don't let your dogs near the water.

Absolutely beautiful. I love it there. Lots of wildlife. Great swimming areas.
However pick up your trash out the water and off the land people. Beer cans and food wrappers should not be a part of the charm

Awesome surroundings
Always kept nice bathrooms especially

Beautiful year round! This is a birding hotspot year round. Don't miss out!

My daddy always took us to shawnee lake. He passed and I still go once or twice a year!

Used to be one of the nicest campgrounds but lately bathrooms are dirty, laundry room unclean. Weekends have been noisy, no more security to oversee the park.

Beautiful, peaceful, and the people there actually used social distancing.

Best nature area in Shawnee County! Be sure to see the Ted Ensley botanical gardens with a covered bridge and Asian inspired pagoda!

Great place for everyone! Swimming beach, fishing, boating, water recreation, clubs, playgrounds, shelter houses for private events, and more!

Very nice and clean, nice veiw and walking track!!!!

It's a cool man-made lake on the southeastern edge of Topeka. Many activities and facilities are provided for at this pleasant little lake. Fishing, boating, golf, disc golf, softball, baseball, soccer, camping, jogging, bicycling, shelter houses, boat docks, a young persons fishing pond, a botanical garden, and more.

Great place for a walk or just to see the sunset. Also multiple play gyms for kids.

Stayed night out their last night for kicks.beautiful calm and serine.totally recommend it stress reliever.

My favorite place to walk my dog. It's 7 miles around the lake. There's is canoes and paddle boats for rent too. Great family outing.

Beautiful gardens...
Dog owners need to clean up after their animals better.

Rid the blue green algae. Great walking path... beautiful scenery.

Great for walking/running, has a lot of play ground equipment, plenty of shelter houses to rent, good golf, camping is okay, fishing can be tough, oh and a long frisbee golf course.

Hey Americans be sure to follow proto. It's a great course

Clean, family friendly, pretty and just a good place.

Its very nice to have a lake ,beautiful park for exercise and disc golf right here in town

Great place to walk, jogg and for kids there is play area

Nice place to expend a relaxing afternoon fishing with the family .

This is a great little lake not far from downtown. I know the cabins are decently priced to rent out because my girlfriend threw her graduation party here. This small lake has beautiful scenery. I'm not so sure I would go fishing here though. Plenty of driving around to do and lots of rest areas to sit and have a picnic or just use the restroom if need be!

Lovely park and lake with many shelter houses and structures to plan a great day at the lake. Specifically, Ted Ensley Gardens is beautiful when the tulips bloom! I was married on the deck of the banquet room here and it was a beautiful spot overlooking the lake. With plenty of activities, this lake is a great outdoor spot in a crowded, sprawled out city. The pagoda structure is very unique and makes for wonderful photographs.

Great all around lake. Only gripe is there isn't enough docks

My family and I just went to the Lake Shawnee swim beach. The experience at and in the water was fine but when I went to the family changing room I was disgusted by the changing table. I have a two year old and needed to use it but there was ABSOLUTELY no way I was putting my daughter on there (good thing she didn't have a poopy diaper). I even have a changing pad thing that I lay down on clean ones but I didn't even want to put mine in there. It looked filthy and I mean filthy. They also really need little showers or something in there to rinse the sand off.

It is a beautiful place, to go for a walk, to admire nature.
Especially in the spring the gardens are full of Tulips (April - May)

Awesome park and Lake. Cool in a hot summer day.
We'll maintained and beautiful landscape.

It's the most accommodating lake in the area with golf, boats, shelter houses, playgrounds, parking and all of the fun stuff.

Beautiful neighborhood & the walking path by the lake is immaculate. Gorgeous everywhere... amazing large trees, the lake itself, willow, moss, bridges & architecture, all lovely. I just stopped when driving by and took a 10-minute walk, it is definitely an oasis that is perfect for rejuvenating. My Little Monster enjoyed it's also.

It has plenty of places to do stuff so you won't really be bothered by anyone

Love coming here! Between the gardens and full pathway around the lake there is so much to do.

Beautiful setting. Nice campground. No sewer hook ups but there is a dump station right across street. Rates are very reasonable.

We stayed in the camp ground for the very first time, I've live in Topeka and grown up camping and always gone to Pomona, Perry or Melvern. Always thought going to Shawnee lake was too close to home. But I'm glad we finally tried it after all these years, all campgrounds are closed due to flooding right now accept Shawnee and not one time did I feel close to home, the view of the lake and the atmosphere was perfect camping. The area is clean and what a nice play area for the kidsWe will definitely be returning for the 4th and in the future. The picture was taken right after a storm looking NW towards the dam

The gardens were beautiful, unfortunately, the heat makes the evenings the best time to visit and hardly any of the paths are lit.

Really nice place. Plenty of spots around the lake to hangout. Botanical garden is beautiful.

I live living so close to Lake Shawnee!! Even the views during construction :-)

Loved it. Need more parks in Topeka though. West side is trerible for lack of parks.

Most relaxing place... well maintained walk trials... great place to spend with family and friends

This is my go to sidewalk, jogging spot. You have plenty of space on the sidewalk, and your miles are marked as go. At first I was not pleased with the feeding the geese ban, but the sidewalks sure have been cleaner and you see less dead fish IMO. I like that you can jog the entire sidewalk trail and see people. It s open and has very few blind spots if any. I feel safe when I m jogging at Lake Shawnee.

Wonderful Place. Plenty of space, loading docks, fishing docks, swimming holes, parks, places to picnoc, shade and very clean!