Field guide · Phoenix
Saguaro Lake cool-off
Half day
Short drive
~240 min
✓ Curated
Forty minutes out of town and suddenly you are on a beach under cliffs.
Butcher Jones is the reason to know about Saguaro Lake: a sandy swimming cove with actual shade ramadas, walled in by desert cliffs, about forty-five minutes from Mesa. Get there before ten on a summer weekend or the lot closes and you are turned around at the gate. The shoreline trail past the cove is short, flat, and worth doing before it gets hot.
The stops
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1
Butcher Jones Recreation Site, Saguaro Lake
N Bush Hwy, Mesa, AZ 85215
Tonto pass required, sold at gas stations on the way — not at the gate.
This outing lives in Jaha
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