Reviews & Comments
Lake Montezuma, AZ
This ain't no desert -
8/6/2017Lake Montezuma does not have a lake; it has a a large pond and some beautiful marshes and a riparian corridor along Beaver Creek. Approaching from the nearby hills, which are rimmed with limestone jutting out, this community appears as a thick canopy of trees. Indeed, once under the trees you will see some with trunks up to 7 feet wide.
This is a floodplane, so it is flat and fertile; the native Americans grew corn here. It is now August and with 5 inches of rain in July, everything is lush and green, more tropical than desert. Indeed, Lake Montezuma gets 15 inches a year (technically, a desert gets less than 10 inches), but as soon as you approach the rocky edges of the floodplane, it looks like rugged desert with creosote and yucca, and in the spring fields of wildflowers.
Lake Monezuma is built around a circular abandoned golf course which is several miles long and has become a field of wildflowers and open space punctuated by trees. My backyard opens to the old golf course and a scant block away is Beaver Creek.
In June it was hellishly hot, up to 115, but July was cool with rain almost everyday, coming down in buckets, accompanied by thunder and lightening. Right now, August 8, it looks more like Costa Rica than the desert (until you emerge out of the floodplane): for that reason, it is a true oasis, a place with plentiful rain and water, huge trees, open fields of wildflowers, and well-kept but modest homes (mine is a log cabin) and no mobile homes. I have never seen trash or litter.
At night, you can hear coyotees, pidgeons, and other animals which find in this oasis a pleasant home. The ripiarian corridor is home for many birds which enjoy the thick canopy of trees which dominate the interior.
The people are simple, friendly, ordinary folk. There is no pollution, very little traffic, and yet it is 5 miles from the (free) Montezuma's Well, 10 miles from the ruins of Montezuma's Castle and the Cliffs Casino, and 15 miles from petroglyphs and 20 miles from the red rocks of Sedona.
There is almost no commercial businesses in Lake Montezuma. The old golf course restaurant is closed, and there is one open and one or two other small businesses. it's very quiet and peaceful. I love it.