I was reading in a brochure about Plateau Lakes Scenic Drive and I told Pops I wanted to do that drive today. I thought it would be a change from mountains and canyons. There are three lakes listed: Lake Mary, Morman Lake, and Stoneman Lake. According to the brochure, these are picturesque lakes that provide photographers with amazing pictures of mountains and sky reflected in the lakes. Sounded perfect. On our way to the lakes though, we spotted an interesting hiking trail sign so we decided to hike a little first. I am so glad we did! It was spectacular! We hiked through a pine forest until we came to the top of a ridge that looked out over a canyon full of lava rock boulders. Across the canyon was a massive pine-covered granite wall. We walked along the ridge until the trail started down a series of switchbacks into the canyon floor. As we went down into the canyon we saw a group of young rock climbers heading for the wall. It is a popular rock climbing area called The Pit. The scenery was unbelievable and so unexpected. We climbed back up and returned to our search for the lakes. I am so glad we had the hike that morning because the lakes were a disappointment .
Two climbers in the middle and bottom of picture.
Lower lake Mary was just a marsh, a wet grassy area for water fowl, I guess. Upper Lake Mary was a lake but was dirty brown and very shallow, grass growing up through it in places, too. Ok, on to Morman Lake. The brochure said it had a picturesque little village on the western shore, with a lodge and restaurant. Hmmm. We found Morman "Lake" and the village with the lodge and restaurant BUT the "lake" was a huge field of beautiful yellow wildflowers. No water, although there were "lake" houses, campgrounds (full of campers), and crowds of people. There was a rodeo going on and it was a very busy little village. But where was the lake???? We have decided that there must be a drought, but it didn't look like there had been water in that "lake" for a long time. Alright, let's move on to Stoneman Lake. In order to get there we had to leave the paved hiway and drive 15 miles down Forest Road 213. This road was listed as a well maintained gravel and dirt road. Wrong again. It was 15 miles of rutted washboard dirt and rock. (I have thrown out the brochure!). Anyway, we persevered and found the overlook for Stoneman Lake. Well, again, no water. But this one didn't even have pretty yellow flowers. It was in a "bowl" shaped valley and was full of dead brown plants surrounded by a little green grass. A young man at the overlook turned to his girlfriend and said, "Didn't this used to have water in it?" .
Well, we gave up on lakes and headed back to Flagstaff. What an interesting day. I always love unexpected detours in the plan and we certainly had that today.
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