Saguaro Del Norte Recreation Site — Attraction in Fountain Hills

Been here twice so far. Water is 5/5, surrounding area 3/5.

It gets busy! You need a tonto pass or America’s the beautiful pass. The water is always nice and not a lot of debris. So many areas to explore by boat, Jetski, or kayak. Water sports here are fun!! Lots of boats and, with it being on the smaller side, lots of waves if you’re at the shore or on paddle boards

The shoreline is meh. There is almost no sandy, beachy areas. There are picnic tables, some have shade some don’t. We found 3 small sandy areas and they were all taken by 7:15am on a Sunday. If you can get one of these spots it’s pretty nice! If not, you’re hanging out on rocks (sucks) or in the water (amazing). The trees on the shore have a ton of green bugs and they will not leave you alone. No amount of bug spray kept them away. A ton of wasps (no not bees)!

Decent amount of dock space and two boat ramps.

I do NOT recommend bringing your dog here if you plan to hang by the shore, on the rocks or on the sandy areas. Only bring them if you have a boat they’ll be on (or you’ve secured a shady area and they have boots). The ground gets way HOTTER from the rocks and there is little to no shade or comfortable areas for them to lay down. Your dogs will be MISERABLE on the shore. Lots of deep waves so if they are boat swimmers, I recommend a life jacket to make swimming easier on them.

There are 4x4 trails that allow you to access the water....

What a beautiful spot! Drive straight ahead down the road- don't turn onto the marina. Keep going and there will diagonal parking that faces the lake. Parking spots can fill up quick; getting out is easy as you can drive straight and turn around ahead. There are picnic pavilions here and also restrooms (no water fountains, no sinks). You can walk down a pier (on the far end) and you can fish from there. There's also spots along the lake that you can walk down (albeit a bit steep). There's not really a sidewalk, but you can walk the grass along the bank of the lake. I didn't really see any official swimming spot though here- mostly just boaters...

This is the hub for the two boat launches, boat trailer parking, and the smaller number of swimmer parking. There are some limited beach spots, enough room for about 8 to 10 pop up awnings to fit. That part fills up by about 10 on the weekends. There's a few small pavilions but beware that the rangers enforce the fire bans for tonto national forest and charcoal is often banned in the summer. It also requires a tonto pass to park here and is best bought at one of the gas stations in east Mesa. There's also some cliff jumping out past the eastern edge of the parking lot. If you want to tail gate, Butcher Jones is closer and has better access...