Lake Pleasant — Attraction in Peoria

We went on a perfect day! You’re greeted with happy staff and it only cost seven dollars to get into the whole place no matter how many people are in your vehicle. Plus a Free map of the lake, which is Huge! Plenty of parking plenty of ways to access the water since it was our first time we decided to just go to the first area we could and we drove right up to the water and a regular car. Not many people on the waters edge. We did meet a few who were very nice. Still I couldn’t get over the amount of garbage along the shoreline. We went in the water and a plastic piece stuck on my friend who was visiting me, at first, she thought it was a condom. We actually arrived about 12 PM. So we could have lunch and hang out by the water. We watched socks of all different kinds, cups lids to glasses, straws, cardboard, boxes of beer float by. Needless to say, I was totally disgusted and embarrassed to be there. there’s a large area for everyone but no garbage cans or anything of that sort. Or anyone to even clean up the disgusting mess that was around us. Now I’m from Chicago. I grew up near the lakefront and never in my life. Have I seen such a disgusting pig of a mess, just laying and floating by! And it’s free to go to our beaches, which are huge by the way! For everyone that has paid money there is no reason for this Beach to be full of garbage the way it was. I just want everyone to be prepared for what they’re walking into especially if you have kids. There’s a lot of sharp objects beer, tops and glass just laying about. It’s very dangerous for anyone much less someone who’s bringing kids with them. If they had people actively cleaning up and actual places to put garbage, I’m sure this place would not be the way it is because the lake is beautiful. I hope they read this and someone does something about it because it is a...

You really can’t miss with Maricopa County Parks. The landscape and appeal of Lake Pleasant is quite a bit different from places like McDowell Mountain, Usery, and Cave Creek. It may seem strange to say we were fortunate to be at Lake Pleasant in inclement weather but it brought out insane levels of dramatic beauty looking out over the saguaros. We were only able to score two nights there but boy howdy we got a show.

The sites at Pleasant Lake are a bit more difficult to manage than other Maricopa parks. The terrain is more challenging in terms of slope and they are not as spatially generous, also because of slopes. Still totally worth it but you’ll have to work harder to get into your site.

We had to hastily block the road while we dropped the toy hauler ramp to unload the sidecar before we could back in properly. We were fortunate in that no one came by in the time we feverishly did that, sensitive to not messing up others’ experiences and creating a roadblock, even for a few minutes.

Because it’s tight, we had to summon our best marshalling skills to back in and not tag the palapa at the site. But once in, the site was very level and no more work was needed to get settled. Cue up happy hour!

Sites are paved and restroom/bath facilities are in line with all of Maricopa parks. Which means, well-maintained and very agreeable. But because Maricopa parks are well-deservedly popular, book hella in advanced for peak season. They’re popular for a reason.

Note for those who carry “toys”: on the way out we made use of a larger, group parking area to load the sidecar. Depending on your site, you may want to consider unloading your tow-in/hauled vehicle at a larger parking area before getting to your campsite. Next time (now that we know the site challenges), we...

Negative stars if allowed: Not only were we not impressed with our visit, we actually felt the need to leave 3 nights early (after cancelation fees we still had to eat most the cost). We had read reviews so we knew that Memorial Day would be wild at the lake, but had no idea the whole thing was unmonitored. Upon arrival we found a family of 10 sitting at our sites picnic table. We thought it may have been the previous night's campers who hadn't left and so we tried to navigate the park but quickly realized the additional traffic wouldn't allow this. We actually came to a flooded road in which we couldn't back up from, due to the traffic. When we went back, we asked if we could start setting up camp. Shortly after, our neighbor (a local) informed us that these individuals had just showed up for the day and had showed up and taken over the campsite. There were constantly lines to the bathrooms (within the campsite) with people that were not staying in the campsite. During our time there, two people had drown in the lake and we were informed that the lake wasn't really kid friendly. Considering this camping trip involved us traveling 1700 miles, roughly 6 months of planning the trip and hundreds of dollars in gas, food, etc. it is fair to we have never been more disappointed with a...