Arizona's Other Great Lake

AKE PLEASANT

THE REMAKING OF A REGIONAL PARK IT'S FINALLY COOL ENOUGH TO VENTURE more than 10 feet from air-conditioning and my four-year-old son is restless. He's ready for adventure. He's looking for a place to throw a rock, chase a butterfly, and chat up a friendly ranger. And maybe catch a fish, eat a buffalo burger, and count sailboats. His mom and dad are looking for a day away from the house and all its attendant chores: the hedge that needs hedging and the garden that needs gardening. We'd settle for anyplace where the sunset is unobstructed by the neighbor's house and there's a breeze that's cooled by water instead of heated by city asphalt. And we'll eat anything, even a buffalo burger, if somebody else will cook it.

So we head for Lake Pleasant. But first we pack the Jeep with bottles of water, fishing poles, camera, binoculars, sunscreen, sandwiches, marshmallows (the little kind that double as fish bait and kid bribes), and one very outdated map of Lake Pleasant.

We've never really spent much time at Lake Pleasant before, even though we've heard a lot about it in the 10 years we've lived in Phoenix. What we've heard hasn't always been... um . . . pleasant. Everybody says it's hot. Boaters say it eats propellers. Campers say there's no shade. Sailors say the boat launches aren't long enough. Parents say there's not much for little kids to do. Hikers say the trails need work. But we hear that's all changing (except for the hot part) because of massive improvements triggered by a new master plan that includes the new dam, an enlarged lake, and all the trimmings.

So this fine fall day, we head north of Phoenix on Interstate 17, watching for Exit 223, which also is known as the Carefree Highway, or State Route 74. Then we drive west six miles, following a trail of vehicles towing boats. We're not exactly sure where we're going, but we figure anytime you follow a caravan of boats in Arizona, it's a safe bet you'll end up in the vicinity of a lake.

And we're right. We end up at Lake Pleasant. We've driven past the place where glider flights take the stouthearted for rides, past the little stuccoed restaurant where the buffalo burgers are cooked to order, and past the mobile roadside stand selling "real cowboy beef jerky."

There are more saguaro cactuses as we get closer to the lake. The hills get hillier, and the road gets curvier. The hills remind us of a collage made many school years ago in Texas: third-graders made mountain-scapes by tearing pieces of construction paper in shades of dusky purple and foggy blues, then layering them several deep. Back on the plains of central Texas, we were making collages of Lake Pleasant's hills, and we didn't even know it.

We let our imaginations wander to what the area might have been like before being tamed by the surveyors, the planners, and the tourists like us. Historical accounts tell of stagecoach lines that crisscrossed the area, ferrying passengers and mail to Prescott, Phoenix, and points in between. The journey was rough and slow, and robberies frequently broke up the routine.

Miners tackled the territory with more enthusiasm than luck in the 1860s and 1870s. One of the more eccentric prospectors was Mollie Sawyer Monroe, who teamed up with men in the area to explore and hunt their fortunes. Today there are still wild burros at Lake Pleasant, descendants of the pack burros used by miners like Mollie.

The area indeed seems magical, despite its rugged terrain and hostility to life other than rattlesnake, cactus, and the well-equipped tourist. We keep driving until we see the sign for the new marina and RV resort. Pleasant Harbor is nestled in the eastern corner of the lake, and it is accessed by a new road that takes travelers to a gate where an entry fee is collected from each driver.

The privately operated full-service marina is home to the Desert Princess, a cruise boat that steers sightseers around the lake, providing lunch or dinner if they want it. A man who looks like he would know says that the tour of the lake is especially interesting at night, when some of the rock cliffs are lit to look like glaciers.

"You'd swear you were in Alaska for a minute or two, at least," he says. His wife nods and says he's right. "For a minute or two," she says. We take a brochure and promise ourselves we'll come back some evening with the four-year-old otherwise occupied. Every Phoenician could use the occasional minute or two of Alaska, we figure.

The new RV resort at Pleasant Harbor is carrying on a grand tradition of resort life at Lake Pleasant. While Mollie and her co-horts didn't have much luck finding gold, they did find Castle Hot Springs, which in 1896 was developed into the first of several popular resorts in the area. The resort, located just northwest of Lake Pleasant on private property, was closed by fire in 1976. Its guest list reads like a Who's Who of American history and entertainment, including Teddy Roosevelt and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who spent three months there recovering from his World War II injuries.

Other resorts came and went over the years, drawing guests from all over the world to the area for sun and pampering. Places like Whispering Sands (also known as Big Boulder), Lake Pleasant Guest Ranch, and Casa Rosa attracted the likes of the Astors, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, and Al Capone.

Although the RV facility at Pleasant Harbor is the only resort for people in the area, there is a resort, of sorts, for bald eagles. At least one pair of bald eagles make their home at Lake Pleasant, and they enjoy their own version of a resort; their nesting domain is designated as the Eagle Closure Area and is off limits to boaters and aircraft pilots from mid-December until late spring, when the eagles nest and nurture their young.

We leave Pleasant Harbor Marina and head for the New Waddell Dam Overlook. Its $1 per person or $4 per vehicle to enter the park and visit the overlook, so we pay up and collect a brochure that contains a "construction update." The park's construction projects are scheduled to be completed next month, and until then, it's best to call the Lake Pleasant Regional Park, (602) 780-9875, to know what's open, advises the brochure.

The view from the New Waddell Dam Overlook is stunning. The rugged desert hills are softened by the hues of purple and blue dominating the landscape. The sparkling blue of Lake Pleasant is dotted with sailboats, cabin cruisers, and fishing boats. The occasional jet ski cuts across the surface of the water, its spasmodic cough bouncing off the dam and demanding at least a fleeting glance from the overlook visitors.

L A K E P L E A S A N T

Rest rooms are open, but the overlook building itself is closed because there are no volunteers this Saturday to staff it. Peering inside, we see displays that explain some of the wildlife and history of the area.

A little research tells us that the 25,000acre Lake Pleasant Regional Park is largely owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The Maricopa Water District, Maricopa County Recreational Services, and the Bureau of Reclamation's Central Arizona Water Conservation District worked out an agreement to develop and run the park. The efforts haven't been without bureaucratic tangles, but the more than 1 million people who visit the park each year are already benefiting from the new developments and those that are still being built, regardless of which governmental entity is in charge.

The biggest change at the park is the New Waddell Dam, which was built between 1985 and 1993 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as a water storage facility for the Central Arizona Project. The new dam replaces the original one, which was started April 15, 1926, and named for Donald C. Waddell, who was instrumental in getting financing for that first dam. Waddell, along with engineer and contractor Carl Pleasant, for whom the lake is named, had fought several battles to build the first dam that created Lake Pleasant. They wrestled with Nature, politicians, and financiers to get the job done, much as today's champions of Lake Pleasant are doing.

Waddell's comments in a 1961 newspaper interview tell the tale of his struggles to get the dam built: "I had a bear by the tail and had to hang on. That bear broke loose a dozen times. he chased me clear to the damsite - I ducked and he slid over."

The original concept of a large dam to collect water in the area was proposed by one of Phoenix's first citizens, W.A. Hancock, in 1888. The project was an ambitious one that didn't make it out of the planning phase. But it set the stage for many wouldbe dam builders, including two men who in 1898 tried to build a dirt dam across the river using only shovels and wheelbarrows. They weren't successful, but some 40 years later, Pleasant and Waddell were.

The original Waddell Dam changed the face of the entire area, not only giving desert dwellers a place to fish and swim but affording them some control over their environment by providing water that is available when it's needed - not just during a rare desert downpour. The original dam was the world's longest and highest multiple-arch dam at the time. It was 2,200 feet in length with maximum elevations of 256 feet above bedrock and 171 feet above riverbed.

The new structure is an earthen-filled dam, 300 feet high and 4,700 feet long. It provides storage for Central Arizona Project water, which is used for irrigation and residential use and to generate hydroelectric power that is sold to local utilities. Because the lake is a holding area for CAP uses, its level changes constantly, challenging those who plan its recreational uses.

The water level fluctuates from 9,966 surface acres and a shoreline of 114 miles to an average surface area of 4,956 and 88 miles of shoreline. Water levels are at their highest in midspring, dropping during hot summer months.

Even so, fishermen busy themselves all around the lake. They seem to be of two types: those who are arriving and those who are leaving. The four-year-old saunters up to one who is of the latter variety and starts firing off questions. The fisherman says yes the fish do like marshmallows even after they get soggy from the water. But he's not sure how they feel about peanut butter and jelly. And if you can stand the heat in the summertime, the fishing here is great.

This particular fisherman likes the fluctuations in the lake's water levels. When the water levels are low, the fish are easy to find because they're all corralled in the same hole. A New Yorker not long ago pulled more than 100 largemouth bass out of the lake, fishing at depths of 16 to 25 feet. He, like most others who fish the lake, caught and released. (The limit is six per day, if you keep them for dinner.) This fisherman pulls his boat from the water using one of 10 lanes of the newly completed boat ramp, which will take a boat into the water even when it's as low as 1,627 feet. A big improvement from the old days, he says with a grin. Today he fished for largemouth bass, but crappie are plentiful in the lake, too, he says. And there are channel cats down deep close to the dam, or so he hears.

It's been a good day at Lake Pleasant. We claim a spot for ourselves at the overlook and watch the sun set in a blaze of glory over the water. Then we head for home, stopping for a buffalo burger on the way. It's been a very good day.

WHEN YOU GO

Lake Pleasant Regional Park is located approximately 30 miles north of downtown Phoenix. Go north on Interstate 17 to State Route 74 (Exit 223), turn left, and go about seven miles to the park entrance. The park is open 24 hours a day with a $4 fee per car, and $2 per watercraft. It costs $1 to visit the New Waddell Dam Overlook and its interpretive center. Call (602) 780-9875 for more information. To visit the privately managed Pleasant Harbor, RV center, and Desert Princess, 230-7600, look for the signs on State 74 before the park entrance. Marina fees are $5 per car, $6, with boat and trailer. Open 24 hours a day. Call (602) 566-3100 for more information. If you are going fishing, you need a license, which can be purchased at sporting goods stores.