What it is
Saguaro Lake is the last and lowest of the four reservoirs on the Salt River, the one closest to Phoenix and, at about 45 minutes, the closest to Scottsdale. Stewart Mountain Dam, finished in 1930, holds it: 1,264 acres of green water at 1,506 feet, backed up through a canyon whose walls are cliffs on one side and slopes of saguaro on the other, with the Superstitions behind and Four Peaks to the north. At the Bush Highway end sits the marina, with boat rentals, a store, a restaurant on the shore called Lakeshore Landing, and the dock of the Desert Belle.
The Desert Belle is the reason non-boaters come. It is a paddle-wheel excursion boat that has worked the lake since 1964, air-conditioned now, running an 80-minute narrated cruise up into the canyon with a captain talking through the dams, the rock, the bald eagles that nest above the lake and the desert bighorn that come down the north cliffs in the morning. On weekends there are live-music cruises with mimosas, on Fridays a craft-beer cruise, on Wednesdays wine. It is unhurried and slightly corny and exactly right for the grandparents.
Why leave Scottsdale for it
Because Scottsdale has pools and canals and no lake. Tempe Town Lake is a reservoir in a city; Bartlett is farther and emptier; Canyon Lake is an hour and a quarter and in a different mood. Saguaro Lake is the one body of water within a resort day that has a canyon, a boat you can simply board, and a beach you can swim from, and our Salt River note has long had it down as the water half of a river day. Pair it with the wild horses on the drive and it is the best half-day east of the city.
The practical version
Loop 202 to Power Road, north onto Bush Highway to the end; or Shea east to the Beeline, then south on Bush Highway. Tonto Pass for parking, bought on the way. Book the Desert Belle online. Rent a pontoon ahead for a weekend. Butcher Jones, five minutes back down the highway, is the swim and the walk. Lunch at the marina.
When to go
October through April is the season for the cruise, the shoreline trail and the eagles, which nest through the winter and fish the lake in the mornings; the Forest Service posts seasonal closures around the nests, which the Desert Belle’s captain will explain. March and April add wildflowers on the slopes and water warm enough to argue about. Summer belongs to the boaters: pontoons go out by eight, the lake is loud by eleven, and the monsoon builds over the Superstitions by mid-afternoon; our summer playbook has it as a morning-only trip. The Desert Belle runs year-round and is air-conditioned, which makes it the one summer activity out here that works at noon.
What to do
- The Desert Belle. The 80-minute narrated cruise first, on an early boat, upper deck. The music cruises are for a second visit.
- A pontoon. Half a day from the marina, up the canyon to the coves below the cliffs where the water is deepest and coolest; bring the cooler, no glass.
- Butcher Jones. Swim from the beach, walk the shoreline trail as far as you like, picnic under the mesquites; our Butcher Jones guide has the details.
- Lunch at Lakeshore Landing. The marina’s restaurant sits on the water; the patio at two, after the morning boats are in, is the quiet hour.
- Wildlife. Bald eagles, desert bighorn on the north cliffs, great blue herons, and the wild horses on the river below the dam at dusk; the desert wildlife field guide covers who you are looking at.
With kids
The Desert Belle is an easy win: short, shaded, with a snack bar and a captain who talks to children. The beach at Butcher Jones is gentle and buoyed. The pontoon is the teenager’s choice. Our Scottsdale with kids note pairs the lake with the ranch’s horses for a full day.
The story
The Salt River Project built its dams from the top down: Roosevelt in 1911, then Horse Mesa and Mormon Flat in the 1920s, and finally Stewart Mountain, begun in 1928 and finished in 1930, the last one before the river leaves the mountains. Its job was storage and, from the start, hydroelectric power; the lake it made was named for the slopes around it, which are as dense with saguaros as any in the Sonoran Desert. The construction camp below the dam, where the crews ate and slept, was sold off when the work ended and became a fishing resort and then the guest ranch that is still there; our Saguaro Lake Ranch guide tells that half.
The Desert Belle arrived in 1964, when Valley families drove out on Sundays to the marina for a boat ride, and has been cruising since, under owners who kept the paddle wheel and the narration and added air conditioning. The marina itself has changed hands more than once and now operates under Suntex, a national marina company, which brought the rental fleet up to date and opened the Lakeshore Landing restaurant on the water. The Forest Service manages everything else: the launch ramps, the Butcher Jones site, the fees, the seasonal eagle closures, and the glass ban that applies to the whole river corridor.
The Scottsdale connection
The water in Saguaro Lake is Scottsdale’s water. A few miles below the dam the Salt meets the Verde, and at Granite Reef Dam the combined river is diverted into the Arizona Canal, which runs along the Scottsdale Waterfront and under the bridges of Old Town before it waters the rest of the Valley. The canal you walk beside at the Waterfront began as this lake. Scottsdale’s resorts have sent guests to the Desert Belle since the 1960s, and the Salt River tubing crowd uses the lake’s cold outflow all summer; the reservoir is the reason the river below it runs in July.
Getting there
From Old Town, the Loop 101 south to the Loop 202 east (Red Mountain Freeway), exit Power Road and turn north; Power Road becomes Bush Highway at the Tonto National Forest boundary and runs 15 miles up the river, past the tubing headquarters and the horse viewing sites, to the Saguaro Lake turnoff and the marina, about 45 minutes with no traffic. From North Scottsdale, Shea Boulevard east to the Beeline Highway (SR 87), south about four miles, then right onto Bush Highway and south to the lake; about the same time and a better drive. Buy the Tonto Pass before the forest boundary; the on-site machine charges more.