On the Road again… Roper Lake State Park, AZ

After spending almost a month in Chandler, AZ, visiting family, we are back on the road again. It is a bittersweet transition – sadly leaving family and turning our wheels south-east to Roper Lake State Park, AZ.

Roper Lake State Park is a small lake (30 lake surface acres) with electric campground sites, camper cabins, a swimming beach and a boat ramp for boats with small electrical motors only, and of course, canoes or kayaks.

After spending a month in the hustle and bustle of a busy, night lit, metropolitan city, Roper Lake is heaven on earth!  It has an Island in the lake  where you can take a stroll, swim or just have a picnic – looks like a gorgeous South Pacific Island.  The water is clear and host to bass, trout, bluegill and sunfish, for those of a fishing nature.  The beach has eroded over time as evidenced by older pictures in the park headquarters.

The lake is on a migratory path for many species of birds and fowl, probably heading back to Mexico for the winter.  Although we didn’t see a lot of different species of birds this trip, we are sure at different times of the year it is a hopping bird resort!

Included with the park admission is a natural spring hot tub.  The water is free-flowing, which means the water is always changing, no standing water to drain and chemicals are not used.  The 1,100 gallon rock tub was constructed from local rocks in the mid-1970’s during the hippy era, swimsuits are now mandatory.  The average year round temperature is 97 degrees.  We have never encountered such a perk in a state park before.  The tub looks like it holds about 10 people at a time with a 15 minute time limit if there are more people than space (we did not encounter anyone while we were in-the-tub). We took advantage of this wonderful, soothing and relaxing perk and decided this state park was well worth the $25.00/night.

Three miles south of Roper Lake is Dankworth Pond, a sub-unit of Roper Lake.  Dankworth Pond is comprised of 150 acres of land surrounding a 15-acre pond that was once a fish hatchery for rearing catfish.  The pond is home to birds, bluegill, catfish and trout.  Waterfowl, migratory birds and other wildlife can be found near the pond.