Canyon Lake
Mesa, AZ
A narrow reservoir on the Salt River along the Apache Trail, surrounded by dramatic volcanic cliff walls rising hundreds of feet. The lake fills a steep-sided canyon in the Superstition Wilderness with minimal shoreline development. The Dolly Steamboat offers guided tours through the inner canyon for unique water-level perspectives of the cliffs.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- morning
- Crowds
- Moderate
- Shot Types
- widelandscapereflection
- Best Seasons
- springfallwinter
Author's Comments
The drive in is part of the photograph, even if you never click the shutter on it. Route 88 winds through the Superstitions and the rock changes color as you climb, and by the time the lake appears below you the light has already done half the work. Canyon Lake is narrower than you expect. The cliffs rise straight out of the water in places, hundreds of feet of volcanic stone holding shadow well past mid-morning, and the reservoir threads between them like something poured rather than built. I come in winter, usually January, when the desert air is clean and the reflections hold. Morning is the only hour that matters here. The sun has to clear the eastern wall before it reaches the water, and there is a window of maybe forty minutes when the upper cliffs are lit warm and the lower walls are still cool blue, and the lake mirrors both. After that the light goes flat and the wind picks up and the surface breaks. The marina gives you one kind of photograph. The Dolly Steamboat gives you another, and it is the one I would prioritize if you only have a single morning. From water level the scale resets. The cliffs become walls in the older sense of the word, vertical and close, and the boat moves slowly enough that you can work a composition rather than chase it. Bring a wide lens for the canyon and something longer for the bighorn sheep that sometimes appear on the ledges. It is not a secret place. But it is large enough and strange enough that it absorbs its visitors, and most mornings you can find a stretch of shoreline that feels like yours.
Gallery
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