Bartlett Lake

What a diamond in the rough… Literally it’s in the back of my yard. Since living on stage pass coach the mountains are my friends but I did the water…
To my surprise my husband and I kept hearing about a like that was 15 mins from us. So we decided to take a little trip…
WOW!!! Gorgeously beautiful…
The water is so blue and the scenic view…
Make sure you take sunscreen and wear loose clothing or very little clothing depending on the weather!!!
Don’t forget the wine!!!

My husband and I have been going to this lake to jetski for 20 years. It is beautiful, clean and not congested. We now go on Mondays and share the lake with about 10 people. I feel so safe out there with my kids. Last week my son and his girlfriend broke down and a fellow boater towed them in. I have been to other lakes in AZ but the feel is just different. I would recommend this lake to anyone. Its a wonderful experience every time.

One of Arizona’s prized locations. Yearly you can see Big Party scenes to flat and quite oasis (depending on time of year and time of day). It’s not too far from the big city. We followed a bandwagaon and started an annual family trip to create memories, next week is our 2^nd annual Bartlett get together :)

The address shown here on this page is obviously not Bartlett lake. In fact it’s like 30 miles off. We drove to Bartlett Lake and just hiked around the water for a bit. Gorgeous views. We didn’t know where to start our hiking (looking for a trail) so we asked the bait shop and they had no idea. Told us to go around to the back by camping area. No thanks– just stick by the water.

Nice big reserve. Lake and flats. You can rent a boat or jet ski at the marina, go swimming, hiking, or even fishing. Not a bad place at all.

Pros: Bartlett lake trail is incredibly scenic with many spectacular views. (It took about 4 hours to hike the whole thing and I would say is moderately challenging.)
Cons: Trail is not always clearly marked and there are many fallen cacti in the path, making for a treacherous journey.
In the future, if I were to come back I would only do half of the trail. Make sure to bring lots of water!

Bartlett Lake is the less regulated, more beautiful Lake Pleasant. The 14-​mile drive from the turnoff to the lake is magical — saguaros line the curvy road while plump roadrunners and quail scurry across the sand. When you pass over the final hill, the view of the long body of water is just spectacular.
Once you’re at the lake, you have a few options as to where to camp. We chose to take the main road all the way to the end (it’s called the flats) and drove along a rough, 4×4 road til we found a vacant spot next to the lakeside.
Once we settled in, we unpacked our tent and opened a few beers while relaxing in the cloudy water of Bartlett Lake. If we were to go again, we definitely would have brought a boat or rented one at the marina. It was a fun experience though and I can’t wait to return in the less sweltering Fall months!

Hey this is a nice Place. I always forget about it and then when I go, I say, wow I always forget about this place.
Anyway, nice big Desert fun! Great water for swimming. I do wish that people would keep it all clean though.
One day a few years ago we went through with plastic trash bags and each of us filled 2 big bags. Just to clean it up a little.
That was just one area as well.
It cost a little to get in. It is right off the freeway.
Nice little beaches and great water. Lots of folks boating here as well. So stay with in the area that is meant for swimming.
As well as Jet skis that like to come into the swimming area, so they can kill someone.
Looking for a nice place to go before it gets too hot. This is it!

Beautiful area, lots of native vegetation. We could not find the «trails» but enjoyed the drive through the park and the beach. Probably super crowed in April/May…very quiet and enjoyable in February.

Bartlett Lake is a wonderful escape to a large (for Arizona) body of water with semi-​sandy beaches that lets you feel like you’re practically at the beach. Boats going by cause small ripples that make a lovely wave-​like sound. The area is very pretty.
The downside is that it takes forever to get there (I live in Cave Creek and it was a good 40 minutes). The drive in is gorgeous, but time consuming. My husband & I came to check it out on a Saturday, with the intention of doing a hike around the lake. The ranger station was closed and the store where you purchase the $ 6 required parking pass did not have any trail maps. We started the Palo Verde trail (#512) which after a few minutes, mysteriously disappears. Just vanishes. We trekked around for a while trying to pick it back up, which was fun, but ended up having to return because there was so much cacti everywhere. The 5 minutes of the trail was very pretty, but I’d recommend getting to talk to a ranger/​getting a map before going on it. Since the lake is very pretty, we just sat on the beach and read for a few hours. No real complaints, but it would have been nice to have been able to do the hike.

We went to Rattlesnake Cove at Bartlett Lake. It’s pretty nice and well kept. You can bbq there and they have a good amount of tables. Get there early because they do fill up.
The bathrooms get dirty quick because everyone is wet from the water. When we went the drain kind of flooded in the smaller of the two stalls.
Rangers do frequent the area on holidays so it’s a good idea to get your Tonto Pass at Big 5 before you go. The last few times the road to the Ranger Station was closed off. Better safe than sorry.

For living in Cave Creek, I realized I had only visited Bartlett Lake once before — and that was on a boat! Definitely not the same as checking a place out on foot. Today, my kids (ages 6 and 9) hiked out one of the trails — Jojoba Trail #511. Jojoba trail is part of the Tonto National Forest. You need to get a Tonto National Forest pass to park anywhere beyond the area where you enter off of Cave Creek Rd. We went on a Sunday, so the ranger station was closed. The marina store was open though, and we were able to pick one up there. They also sell snacks, soda, beer, etc. You can also pick up passes in Cave Creek/​Carefree at Circle K and other places. Apparently the fine is about $ 100 if you don’t have it visible. There were pot toilets at the parking area — although not well maintained and pretty gross and smelly.
For Jojoba Trail — Go until Bartlett Lake Rd. ends at the marina/​parking lot. On the left side of the parking lot after you enter you’ll see a sign for a hiking trail — that is Jojoba Trail. I would not recommend this trail for anyone who is unstable, and definitely not younger than 5 or so. My kids are pretty good hikers, but it was even a bit of a challenge for my 6 year old due to slippery rocky areas. It is also not terribly well marked, so if you go off the trail you might have trouble finding it again (as happened to us for about 10 minutes). Luckily, it was coolish 70 degrees and cloudy on this fine day, so it was a non-​issue. Wear PANTS. Lots of brush, even in parts of the trail, and easy to slip and get scraped up.
We hiked to a cove, although I don’t think it was Rattlesnake Cove, but who knows? Nothing is marked, and there are no maps for this trail that I could find either online or in the area there. Kids got to wade in and dog swam around to cool off. I think you could easily swim here in the summertime, and it’s a pretty easy 1 mile hike to get to the cove we stopped at (and turned back at that point). It would be HOT in the summer though — so I would definitely do it very early in the morning in the hotter months. They had a great time exploring the little peninsula. We didn’t have fishing poles, but it would have made a fantastic fishing spot!
The hike itself was awesome. So beautiful hiking right next to the lake, and with all of the beautiful cacti. I hear there’s lots of wildlife here. We didn’t see any, but it’s pretty remote way deep in the canyons so I would expect that it would be easy to spot some desert creatures. So beautiful! I will definitely do this hike again. There was nobody else on the trail with us, so I suspect that it’s not very well known. Which makes sense, since there’s no maps or anything online.