Roosevelt Lake -- a retrospective

Officially named Theodore Roosevelt Lake, it is the oldest and largest of six large reservoirs constructed and operated by the Salt River Project. Wikipedia.

Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility.

The aerial photo shows both Roosevelt Lake and Apache Lake to the south. The Salt River enters the lake from the east and the Tonto Creek comes in from the northwest. Also visible are the outlines of three wilderness areas; the Superstition Wilderness, the Four Peaks Wilderness and the Salome Wilderness. Next to the lake, on the south, is the Tonto National Monument, a preserved complex of cliff dwellings. All of these lie within the Tonto National Forest.

Roosevelt Lake and the others in the Salt River Project are used extensively for fishing, boating, water skiing, sailing and other water related activities. All of the lakes have boat ramps and other facilities. Roosevelt Lake has an extensive complex of campgrounds.

At the time of the aerial photo, Roosevelt Lake was very low, as shown by the extensive areas of light colored land around the lake. Because these are desert lakes, their level depends entirely on rainfall amounts. Every few years, the lakes fill from inflow from the rivers and then they drain down as water is used for domestic and irrigation purposes in the Salt River Valley. Because the level of the lakes fluctuates from year to year, in some years the campgrounds are almost a half a mile from the lake, in other years they are on the lake shore. The boat ramps and docks are constructed to rise and fall with the level of the lake. In extremely dry years, the boat docks are left high up on the shore and access to the lakes is extremely limited.

I grew up thinking all lakes were reservoirs. I remember being amazed that there was a lake that didn't have a dam associated with it. I always wondered how they kept the water in the lake and why it didn't all run out.