Mesa, AZ - Butcher Jones

A trite Arizona joke line is: 'You know you're in Arizona when you no longer associate bridges and rivers with water.' But it's no joke, it's all true: bridges go over 'washes' which might have water in them sometime. And, often, the Salt River which runs through Phoenix is completely dry.

But lakes, lakes? In Arizona? Sure enough. Usually people think of deserts with cacti, brush and rattlesnakes. But, Arizona has lots of other ecological and geographical systems. And, today, we’re going to hike around a lake - well, actually it is a reservoir with a marina, marshes, wading birds, fish, picnic and camping areas and - guess what? a neat trail which circles part of the lake and then heads up and over a rocky hill to another part of the lake.

Saguaro Lake was formed by the Stewart Mountain Dam, which was completed in 1930. It was the last of the 4 reservoirs to be built on the Salt River (which sometimes has water which Phoenix wants to use). Several days ago we traveled down into the Salt River Canyon, today, we’re upriver and hiking around one of its lakes.

It was a Sunday and, as we expected, lots of others were out to enjoy the weather. We began right after a hiking club called the ‘Take a Hike’ club and actually ended up at the same point of land they did, looking out over the reservoir towards the 4 peaks, a landmark on the NE corner of Phoenix. I took a picture of the club with a smart phone and one of them took a picture of us.

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