I notice that you live in Mesa AZ. Im from nebraska and moving to phoenix in april. I was wondering where are the good places to ride close to phoenix? Do you guys have to pay a yearly park permits to ride on the lakes? Cost?

nitro,
This might be better in the General Watercraft section.

Didn't anyone tell you? It's just a sandy desert here. There ain't no water ANYWHERE!

Basically you are anywhere from 10 minutes to 1.5hours from over 8 lakes/rivers. If you go out to 3 hours you pick up 2-4 more great riding spots on the Colorado. 4-6 hours you are hitting the ocean, or Rocky Point...

Summer can be rather intimidating on the local lakes. Heck there are sometimes a WAITING LINE in the middle of the desert just to get on, sometimes.

However, this is going to be a great year on the east side of Phoenix, with all the recent rains.
http://www.srpwater.com/dwr/
I hear Lake Pleasant is AT CAPACITY and they are trying to figure out what to do with the water.

Anyone got a report on Mead or Powell?

Salt River/Verde River system.
http://www.srpnet.com/water/dams/default.aspx

Thanks for the info. Do you pay a yearly park permit to get on these lakes? Cost? Here in NE it cost around $4 for a day pass or you can pay $18/year for a state park permit that was good for all the state lakes in the state.

$6 a day, or $90 a year... but that is only for the national forest lakes that I listed above. It doesn't cover Lake Pleasant. It also covers your car for regular parking and camping.

Lake Pleasant has yearly fees also...both on the county side and the water district side. Off hand, don't remember what it was.....but they had different rates for the whole week or for only weekdays.....

Normal entry is $5 per vehicle, and $2 for each watercraft.

Hydrotoys....how are you feeling after the Havasu race??.....I finally got on here!!!

RP Joe,

Welcome to the BEST SD board on the net (IMHO!) You still see a lot of "herd of sheep" answers here, but at least everyone can speak their mind... plus a lot of regulars from your normal place.

I'm still gimpin' around, but havent had an asprin in days. The combo of a back brace at work, and wearing leg and arm weights around the house is making things better, pretty quick. I even took the street bike out for a quick 45 min ride yesterday!

Tbere are a few of your fugly arsed pics on my page, listed under the MHahn memorial thread in the PWC general section.

Folks, Rocky point Joe has both a SC and a RXP. He has a wealth of real world info... not just what somebody told him to do.

Thanks Mark...for the kind words.....don't know if I want to thank you for the photos...considering the messages on the other site....over the one you did post!!!!

I'm doing pretty well after the race...actually, wasn't hurting much more than from my last riding down at Rocky Point....the soreness was gone by Tuesday. It was educational.....definitely would change some of the strategy....don't know if we would have changed the ski we used (SC vs. RXP). If the SC hadn't had the burp ( a miserable $7.50 part....thanks for the help and the bungee), it was running strong enough to have placed in the top 10! Oh well.....coulda...shoulda...woulda!!!! It was fun anyway.

Dude, them sure are some cute chicken legs.

You and dawg kicked butt, considering your downtime. Plus you did Mark H. proud. Heck, I was proud of you!!!

Here's agreat site that has the water levels for the lakes in Arizona (including Powell, Mead and Mohave)....it gets updated every Thursday...but sometimes takes Arizona Game and Fish a couple of days to post....

http://www.gf.state.az.us/h_f/edits/lake_levels.shtml

Another great riding area is the Colorado river south of I-10 on the border of CA/AZ and as Mark also indicated, ocean riding at Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) Mexico. It's about a 4 hr. drive from either Phoenix or Tucson on the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez).