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One may not think of bodies of water as a thing in a desert state like Arizona. One would be mistaken. According to various sources, Arizona has about 100 lakes and reservoirs for public use, and countless private man-made lakes. Only two lakes in Arizona are natural: Mormon Lake east of Flagstaff and Stoneman Lake south of Flagstaff. The rest are human creations. The largest were created by damming rivers: Lake Powell, Lake Mead, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu are caused by dams on the Colorado River. Apache Lake, Roosevelt Lake, Canyon Lake and Saguaro Lake are caused by dams on the Salt River. They're managed for power generation, irrigation, flood control and recreation. Arizona has the most boats per capita of any state in the U.S. Arizona Game and Fish regularly stocks lakes for fishing recreation.
Our choice was Kinnikinick Lake, about 40 miles southeast of Flagstaff. What a great name! It's really fun to say aloud. Go ahead, try it! Ron had been there, but as it happened I never had. We loaded up a lunch and the dogs and left for a lake adventure. The drive on Lake Mary Road was very pleasant, and the miles passed quickly. It was dirt road from Lake Mary Road to Kinninick Lake; easily driveable. Wildlife sighting started on the way in. These two buzzards were part of a flock that was doing what buzzards do.
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| Photo courtesy Ron. |
We arrived at the lake and let our own wildlife enjoy the water. Both Gypsy and Jasmine love to wade and will paddle if it's deep enough. Jasmine even likes to..well, I'll call it waller. She's about to get down on her belly in this shallow part.
We decided to walk around the lake. Kinnikinick Lake is about 126 acres; more meaningfully, about 2.5 miles in circumference. Our next wildlife was a heron and what was probably a curlew.
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| Photo courtesy Ron. |
We stopped early on for a break. Ron was sitting. I wandered around a bit; the dogs were sniffing and being doggish. There was plenty of movement. Finally I sat down beside Ron, looked up at the juniper tree a few yards away and saw we were being watched:
Yep, this eagle was checking us out in a most nonchalant way. I hissed at Ron, and he put his camera into action. Kinnikinick Lake is stocked with trout, so I'm sure we were of secondary interest to this eagle. We watched each other for a goodly amount of time, then it flew off about its business.
Killdeer were next up on our checklist.
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| Photo courtesy Ron. |
As we worked our way around, we crossed an earthen dam on which the other side was a bonus! Two lakes for the price of one! The very small Morton Lake.
Cormorants were our final photo op. There were other ducks in the water, but out of range.
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| Photo Courtesy Ron. |
Though we had planned to stay into the afternoon, we got back to the truck and our lunch with thunder rumbling in our homeward direction. We ate lunch and decided to meander back. However, at a fork in the road.....we took the other. Though it was dirt, it was east and away from the monsoon. We came upon a truck pulled off to the side of the road and a man out looking at something in the distance. Yep, he'd spotted a large herd of elk; rough estimates of 150-200! Oh, my!
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| Photo courtesy Ron. |
We eventually worked our way to I40 at Twin Arrows and drove home, more than satisfied with the day.
Always take the scenic road.
-----familyoffduty.com
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