Stand up paddle boarding in the desert

 

This year in Arizona Nora and I did something different and took our inflatable stand up paddle boards along on the trip.  Every year when we drive from the airport to Wickenburg we've gone past Lake Pleasant and I have always thought it might be a fun place to visit.  And so this year we did it.

In the Phoenix airport Nora was not happy carrying the paddle board from the baggage claim to the rental car.  Our boards do come with backpacks but no wheels. But really that was not a lot of hardship considering how much fun we had with the boards.

We went to Lake Pleasant twice.  The first day it was pretty windy and we made the mistake of going downwind first.  And then we had to fight the wind to get back to the car.

On the next trip the lake was practically glassed off and we got to do some serious exploring.  It is so weird to paddle around on a lake with cactuses right up to the shore.  And waterbirds like ducks and great blue herons along the shore - in the middle of a desert!

When they dammed the Agua Frio River to create the lake they flooded a bunch of canyons.  We'd paddle up into these old canyons and along the base of old cliffs.  We heard a donkey bray and then ran into the donkeys along the shore.  I gather there is a large feral donkey population in the area, and along the road driving to the lake we saw warning 'donkey crossing signs' with an image of a donkey on it.

I gather the water levels are high in the spring with the snow melt in the mountains, and lowest right about now after the dry summer.  Clearly based on the 'bathtub' ring around the lake it goes up and down a lot.  For us ocean dwellers it felt like a serious low tide.

Patrick