April 2019 – The travel stories on this blog often present the fantastic new discoveries we’ve made in our travels, but sometimes our life on the road progresses uneventfully. And so it has these past weeks.
Revisiting and staying in a place we know know and love, we’ve found that each day has slipped into the next without fanfare or breathtaking thrills. Life has been moving at a sweet and gentle pace!
Sunset in eastern Arizona.
Camping under the stars.
After exploring a little bit of eastern Arizona, we made our way to Roosevelt Lake where Spring was in full bloom.
Roosevelt Lake
The water level in the lake had been at 49% when we’d visited in January, and was shockingly low. Many former coves and bays had been filled with trees.
Now the lake had swollen to 84% of full volume and showed few signs of slowing down. Lots of hiking trails and dirt roads we’d explored in January were now under 20′ of water!
Swollen banks and submerged trees!
Roosevelt Lake is the first lake in the chain of dammed lakes in the Salt River as it flows downstream, so this fast rise in the lake’s water level was due to rain and snow-melt upstream rather than the simple opening of floodgates in a dam. How wonderful to see the desert get such a nice big drink from Mother Nature!
Yellow flowers dance above the shores of Roosevelt Lake
Yellow, pink and purple wildflowers were in bloom in every nook and cranny of the desert. They craned their faces towards the sun. Some of the cactus varieties had begun to bloom too. Their flowers were big and vibrant, bursting out of the nasty thorny cactus arms in a gorgeous display. It was as if Nature were saying through these blossoms, “Never judge a book by its cover!”
The prickliest cactus bear the most beautiful flowers.
For the 50 weeks a year that these flowers aren’t blooming you’d never guess what those other 2 weeks are like!
We took our new little RZR out on the roads through the desert to see if we could find more flowers. It wasn’t hard!
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Every now and then we’d get a whiff of a flowery fragrance wafting through the air. Buddy rode with his nose twitching eagerly.
Buddy sniffs the air as we drive in the RZR.
For some reason some of the best wildflower displays seem to be along the edges of big paved roads and surrounding parking lots. We found some glorious bunches of flowers in and around Tonto National Monument.
The wildflowers were most plentiful along the paved highways!
And around Tonto National Monument too!
A few years ago we’d visited the Boyce Thompson Arboretum which specializes in Sonoran Desert plants, but the flowers blooming in the parking lot had soaked up all our energy and after two hours of roaming around the parking lot and filling our cameras with photos we’d had almost no energy left to see whatever was on display inside the Arboretum!
So it was here. Tonto National Monument has a delightful picnic area that is rarely used, but the wildflowers around the artfully situated picnic ramadas are lovely!
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We couldn’t get over the rise in the lake’s water level, and we wandered down to the water’s edge many times to monitor its progress as it rose each day. Sunny hot days soon gave way to blustery cold days. The waves took on a menacing look and the patterns in the sky were beautiful as the dark clouds raced across the heavens.
Wind whipped the waves on the shore.
An unusual curvy cloud and tree trunk.
Storm clouds by the shore.
Every single boat ramp around the lake was open, something we haven’t seen in years, and along with that, many campground loops near the boat ramps that had been closed for a long time were now open as well.
The flip side of that, though, was that one of the lowest lying boat ramps — the one that never has to close, even when the lake level drops super low — was almost completely submerged.
Not only did you have to walk uphill onto the floating dock, the entire boat ramp was under water (left),
all the way up to the tippy top!
Mark drove the RZR through the water at the top of the boat ramp and had fun making waves.
Mark had fun splashing in the water at the top of the boat ramp.
Weeee!
As Easter Weekend approached, more and more people came out to enjoy the lake. Hundreds of boats filled the parking lots and fishermen were eagerly casting.
The anglers were out in droves, both on shore and in fishing boats.
Buddy’s favorite part of these peaceful days was lizard hunting. His preferred method of going after these lightning fast creatures is to leap in the air and pounce. We spent many happy hours watching him and trying to catch him in the act on our cameras. But it’s not so easy!
Leaping for lizards!
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While he chased the lizards and occasional jack rabbits we savored the brilliant colors of spring.
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One evening the sky gave us an especially dramatic sunset. Above the horizon a huge cloud swirled and rolled over and around itself like a ball of pink cotton candy in the sky.
Cotton candy!
Sunset across the lake brought some lovely reflections.
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And a full moon rose over the desert.
Full moon rising
Sometimes the best times in our travels are the quiet languid days when we slow down and bask in a beloved place once again!
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Other blog posts from this area:
- Rainbows and Wild Horses in the Arizona Desert! 02/08/19
- Lost Dutchman State Park Campground – Arizona Gold in the Superstitions 02/15/18
- Dolly Steamboat – Gliding Through the Arizona Desert on Canyon Lake 02/09/18
- Fall Colors and Wildlife on the Sonoran Desert Rivers in Arizona 12/22/17
- Peach Faced Lovebirds in Phoenix, AZ – Parrots in Cactus! 03/01/16
- ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort – RVer’s and Golfer’s Delight! 01/22/16
- Tonto National Monument AZ – Workamping with the Ancients! 01/07/16
- Monte Vista RV Resort in AZ – Arts, Crafts and Sports Fun! 12/30/15
- Tonto National Monument AZ – Lower Cliff Dwellings 12/16/15
- Copper Mines, NOT CAMPING, in Tonto National Forest – Why? 12/13/15
- Fall Color in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert near Roosevelt Lake 12/10/15
- Arizona’s Stunning Apache Trail Scenic Drive 02/09/15
- A Majestic Scenic Drive in Arizona – The Bush Highway 01/14/15
- Burrowing owls in Gilbert, Arizona – They’re a Hoot! 01/13/15
- Hunting Spring Wildflowers in Arizona 05/05/14
- Roosevelt Lake – Lakeside Camping in AZ 05/01/14
- Wild Horses of the Salt River in Phoenix 04/25/14
- Phoenix on the Wing – Waterbirds of Arizona! 03/27/14
- The Wind Cave Hike in Phoenix AZ – The Hills are Alive! 03/13/14
- Saguaro Lake – On the Waterfront in Phoenix 02/27/14
- Rivers of Phoenix – Oases in the Desert! 02/14/14
- Phoenix Sonoran Preserve – A City Escape 01/24/14
- Roosevelt Lake, AZ – Desert Oasis 04/15/09
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