74 Lake/ River/ Ponds to Explore in Arizona

Luna Lake is a natural body of water that covers approximately 75 acres. It is the largest campground in the Alpine Ranger District. Even during peak season, you’re likely to find a site here. With opportunities for viewing wildlife, hunting, fishing, or just kicking back, you can bring your family and friends to experience an awesome camping trip.

Lyman Lake is one of the few bodies of water in northeastern Arizona with no size restrictions on boats. Created as an irrigation reservoir by damming the Little Colorado River, Lyman Lake State Park is a 1,200-acre park that encompasses the shoreline of a 1,500-acre reservoir at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The State Parks and Recreation Department maintains year-round visitor amenities. A wide variety of watercraft are also authorized in the park such as canoes, kayaks, and jet skis.

The Lyman Reservoir is the largest lake in the region. Lyman Lake State Park, is located in and administered by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, attracts anglers, as well as campers and water skiers year-round.The State Parks and Recreation Department maintains year-round visitor amenities. Due to the vast size of Lyman Lake, there are no restrictions on boat sizes. A wide variety of watercraft are also authorized in the park such as canoes, kayaks, and jet skis.

Lynx Lake, Arizona, is a 55-acre reservoir located within Prescott National Forest. It is one of the most popular recreation areas in central Arizona. Mild weather, the cool ponderosa pine forest, trout fishing, boating, mountain hiking, horseback riding, archaeological sites, and bird watching attract visitors from throughout Arizona.

Mexican Hay Lake is located off State Route 260 southwest of Springerville in the White Mountains. IT is an iconic location for a daytrip and also there are various options for leisure too.

A beautiful lake located at the Mittry Lake Wildlife Area, just north of Yuma, Arizona, on the Lower Colorado River. It offers a wide variety of habitats, from open lakes to cattail marshes and streamside woodlands, providing an equally wide opportunity for wildlife-based recreation. There is a three-lane boat launch ramp for motorized boating on the lake. There are no facilities or designated areas for camping, but camping is allowed.

Montezuma well is a detached unit of Montezuma Castle National Monument. It is a natural limestone sinkhole near the town of Lake Montezuma, Arizona, through which some 1,500,000 US gallons of water emerge each day from an underground spring.

Nelson Reservoir is a reservoir located in Apache County, Arizona between Springerville and Alpine. The Reservoir is a long and narrow lake which follows the Nutrioso Creek Valley for nearly a mile. Fish that remain in Nelson Reservoir after summer stockings can grow to good size, making it a popular fishing site with local anglers.

A beautiful lake located in the southeastern Arizona. The lake is a reservoir formed by a dam in Parker Canyon in the south end of the Canelo Hills in southwestern Cochise County. Parker Canyon is a tributary to the Santa Cruz River in the San Rafael Valley. The facilities are maintained by Coronado National Forest division of the USDA Forest Service.

A beautiful manmade reservoir in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The lake was created by damming Sonoita Creek, and is a popular area for boating and sport fishing. The park offers a campground, beach, picnic area with ramadas, tables and grills, a creek trail, boat ramps, and a marina.

Patagonia Lake State Park was established in 1975 as a state park and is an ideal place to find whitetail deer roaming the hills and great blue herons walking the shoreline.The park offers a beach, picnic area with ramadas, tables & grills, a creek trail, boat ramps, a marina, and the Lakeside Market. There is a campground, boat-in camp sites, restrooms, showers, and a dump station. The Lakeside Market offers boat rentals, fishing licenses, bait, ice, and more.

A beautiful reservoir in Arizona, which offers year-round outdoor and water recreation. Surrounded by grassy hills, Peña Blanca Lake, near Nogales, AZ is the perfect outdoor retreat. This is a popular recreation spot for visitors from neighboring Nogales, Arizona and nearby communities in Mexico. On weekends, and some weekdays, during the peak summer season, this area can be quite crowded.

Picacho Reservoir is just 11 miles south of Coolidge in central Arizona. The reservoir was built in the 1920s as part of the San Carlos Irrigation Project. The reservoir's original purpose was water storage and flow regulation for the Florence-Casa Grande and Casa Grande Canals. The lake's design capacity was 24,500 acre-feet of water, with a surface area of over 2 square miles.

This is a lake that was created using recycled wastewater by the city of Show Low. It is an excellent observation and study area for anyone interested in waterfowl and waterfowl habitat.

Rainbow Lake is a 116-acre manmade lake near the town of Pinetop-Lakeside in southern Navajo County, Arizona. The lake was created in 1903 when Mormon settlers dammed Walnut Creek, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, to impound water for irrigation. Rainbow Lake is mostly surrounded by homes, including the private HOA Shores at Rainbow Lake on the southeast side. It is a prominent recreational feature of the Pinetop-Lakeside area, known for its fishing, boating, and wildlife habitats.

Reservation Lake is an approximately 300 acre body of water located just inside the eastern boundary of the White Mountain Apache Reservation in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. This lake is not quite as accessible as the other lakes in the area. A 10 mile drive on a washboarded dirt road is necessary to get to Reservation Lake.

A small picturesque lake, 11 acres in size, set in alpine forest and meadow. Its cold waters are stocked during the summer with rainbow, brown and brook trout, and anglers report that the fishing is usually good. It is an iconic attraction in this area and also a good camping location.

River Reservoir is the largest and deepest of a trio of lakes collectively known as the Greer Lakes. Drained since 2004 because of safety issues, the dam at River Reservoir was repaired in 2005. Like the other two Greer Lakes, it has new amenities. The Arizona Game and Fish Department stocks River Reservoir with fingerling rainbow trout in the spring and catchable-sized rainbow trout in the spring and summer.

Saguaro Lake is the fourth reservoir on the Salt River, formed by the Stewart Mountain Dam in the U.S. state of Arizona. The lake is off State Route 87, about halfway between Phoenix and the ghost town of Sunflower. This lake is within the Tonto National Forest

The Salt River is a river in Gila and Maricopa counties in Arizona, United States, that is the largest tributary of the Gila River. The river is about 200 miles long. Its drainage basin is about 13,700 square miles large. The longest of the Salt River's many tributaries is the 195-mile Verde River. The Salt's headwaters tributaries, the Black River and East Fork, increase the river's total length to about 300 miles .