Further to my ‘Lake’ collection, we visited a number of blue smears on the map.
Admittedly they had some verbiage that indicated that there was water there… like Mexican Hay Lake and Lee Valley Reservoir, I was quickly reminded that this is Arizona.
The ‘Lakes’ that we made our way to for photos were in fact, nothing by dry holes! So much for that idea! Maybe Spring after snowfall is a better time to do the Lake trek.
The good news was we found water in abundance at Hawley Lake outside of Pinetop-Lakeside. Even better news was that on our loop around looking for actual water in those fictitious lakes was that we did manage to encounter a variety of willing animals to photograph.
Like this blue heron that seemed like he wanted to say something to me. Or the chipmunk that posed for me.
I caught these antelope running through the fields of yellow flowers along the road outside of Greer.
One thing the trip made clear… winter is coming. The overnight lows were chilly. I’m not sure how many more lakes we will be about to get in, as snow will be soon following, along with closed roads.
Hard to imagine.. but Christmas is just around the corner. Get your winter woolies out!
kritterspix 
My family used to camp at Hawley Lake every summer. I learned to fish and boat there, and wouldn’t trade those days for anything. It was tough on the 400+ cabin owners when their inexpensive 25 year land leases expired and they were forced by the Apache tribe to abandon their cabins.
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We saw the many beautiful well kept cabins, now all abandoned and dilapidated. Seemed like such a shame. It is a beautiful lake, we were impressed.
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