4 things to do on Lake Murray in a boat

The boat has been splashed, the sunscreen slathered, cooler secured and your grocery budget for the month annihilated to pay for gas.

Now what?

There are several things to visit, experience and see by boat on Lake Murray. Here are four suggestions:

Look at houses. This is one of the most popular things to do, because there are many spectacular homes on Lake Murray. University of South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp recently bought a lakefront home. His 9,417-square-foot house is designed to resemble a vintage ocean liner, with an angular glass “prow” of two-story high windows and second story balcony railings reminiscent of a cruise ship. It’s located in an Irmo cove near Liberty on the Lake.

In a cove next to Muschamp’s is a home still referred to by locals as Brantley Manor, even though several families have owned it since the Brantleys and the original Tudor structure was torn down after a fire. It is one of the largest homes on the lake.

Related: Read more about Muschamp’s Lake Murray home and see a video tour

Steven and Maria Mungo live in a Mediterranean-style home in view of the dam, which is also worth gawking at.

Visit some of Lake Murray’s islands. There are 60-plus islands at Lake Murray. Some say you may still find fragments on Bomb (aka Lunch and Doolittle) Island from the days when Doolittle’s Raiders used it as target practice during World War II. It’s also the place to go to see the purple martins if they return to Lake Murray this summer.

“We don’t know if they’re going to return until they come,” Department of Natural Resources spokesman Robert McCullough said. For many summers, thousands of the birds descend on the island at dusk to perch for the night.

There are other islands to explore: Dreher Island State Park has hiking trails, camp sites and playgrounds. There are “historical sites” on various islands, including graves on Goat Island dating to the 1800s, and old home sites on others, according to Paul Taylor, an avid outdoorsman and Lake Murray realtor.

Visit a marina. If the cooler runs low, there are some marina stores that offer drinks, snacks and other supplies. Jake’s has been around in some form since the early 1940s. Originally, it was a farm that allowed people boat access. Today, it provides an old-timey lake atmosphere near the dam. Farther down the lake is Dreher Island’s marina store.

Enjoy a sunset. There are various spots across the lake where you can drift or anchor to watch the sun set beyond Lake Murray’s shores.

“These are some of the most amazing sunsets you’ll ever see,” said Bryan Senn, a park ranger at Saluda Shoals.

Lezlie Patterson, Special to Go Columbia

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 11:28 AM with the headline "4 things to do on Lake Murray in a boat."