Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary

Pretty nice. A corner of Beaver Lake with paths and observation decks. Lots of birds to see including Herons and others. Not a fancy place but really nice. Quiet. Take a picnic lunch.

I like to walk around beaver lake and the bird sanctuary is on one end.
I don’t know what the person that gave the review with one star is talking about because there are 30 parking spaces and there is not even a highway close!
The sanctuary is well taking care of they do change things occasionally so I did see tools around or walking ways blocked of but it does not really matter.
I m not a birder I just enjoy the walking around the entire lake I did explore a little and found a couple of nice boardwalks that reach to the lake.
I subtract a star because around the lake you need a permit to walk a dog.

Okay. So we came to Asheville for spring break, mainly to bird, and everything said that this was the best place to do so. So we drove (hectically, I might add) through the entire city to get here. The first flop was no parking. We drove around for a half hour or more trying to find even a place to pull over, but they were all privately owned or not even close. We finally started just walking along the highway to get there. There are multiple entrances to trails and all of them either were no trespassing on private property or this area is currently closed. After much time walking around trying to get in ANYWHERE, we gave up and left, disappointed. And not a single bird was seen.
The next day, after another crappy day of birding, we were so desperate that we decided to actually go here even though you weren’t supposed to. We had seen several people going back in the previous day. We presumed that they lived along the lake, but we were so desperate that we actually jumped over several strings of caution tape to get in, as well as ignoring signs that the park was closed. And, guess what happened once we were in? For one thing, which we should have expected, there were still tools and wood blocks everywhere, because they were obviously still building the boardwalk. For a second, we saw hardly any birds anyway. This was all just disappointing. I feel really bad about sneaking in now, by the way. And it wasn’t my idea. I was jittery the whole time.

This 8-​acre area is owned and run by the Audubon Society. Lots of woodsy and swampy trails to observe birds in their natural habitat, and benches to sit on to appreciate nature. I’m subtracting one star for the black bear that quietly watched us as we sat on the bench overlooking the lake last fall. Girlfriend was not happy.