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.