Canyon Lake

  The following is a must do if you like scenic boat rides outdoors. My favorite thing to do in Arizona is  pontooning on our lakes. I like Canyon Lake  because of the short drive from Phoenix and its beautiful high rock cliffs, colors, and caves carved out by ancient rivers. Canyon Lake boasts incredible wild life, deer, Bighorn Sheep, Elk, Mountain lion, and much more. On our last trip we were lucky to see a family of Bighorn Sheep, some even coming right up to get a drink of lake water. Incredible! There are eagles, hawks, cranes, and unlimited wildlife. Your ride should start at the marina, of course, and proceed NW to a long and winding canyon. You may feel comfortable boating farther out.   If you do, I suggest you go all the way to the Apache Lake damn. Arizona has a series of lakes separated by damns. The first and closest is Saguaro Lake, next is Canyon Lake, Apache Lake then finally the largest, Roosevelt Lake . We will talk about Arizona's others lakes like Lake Powell in our future articles. When you finally arrive at the end of Canyon Lake, there will be a large sand bar where you may easily run the boat up onto and get out to stretch your legs. This beach sports a no wake zone area, meaning you must drive slowly as people are enjoying their camp sites and swimming nearby. Adjacent to this sand bar is a long red interesting looking sandstone bank carved into Swiss cheese by a thousand  years of wind and water.  This could be a great place for some rock diving. If you enjoy fishing, we have caught many in this area. If you're adventurous and would like to spend the night under the stars after watching a spactacular Arizona sun set, find a parking spot as it gets pretty dark out there.

 Waking up in the morning on the lake is spectacular watching the multi-colored fingers of sun wind its golden ribbons through the orange canyon walls. As the morning sun dances across the rippling water it reflects onto the canyon walls creating a nice shimmering light show.  

 The best time to go to most of these lakes is when Phoenix' s high temperature is around 90 degrees or so if you don't want to have to jump in to the water all the time just to stay cool. If traveling to one of the aforementioned lakes  in midsummer, you should plan to arrive before 8 or 9 am as our lakes fill up fast in hot weather. Do not forget about Arizona's monsoon storms as they generally start around July 15 and can last through the end of September. These storms come out of nowhere fast and hard, enough to blow you around on the lake like a cork but once it's over, it sure can provide a much cooler and pretty afternoon. 

Planning factor 5 call ahead for boat reservations  strenuous level 3               

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