Lake Size: 53,200 acres Deepest Depth: 181 feet (55 m) Latitude: 33.072778 Longitude: -113.015556 Lake Level Above Sea Level: 661 feet Counties: Maricopa County Lake Management: US Army Corps of Engineers Water Quality: maricopa/dendora-valley/painted-rock-reservoir/
Information: The Painted Rock Reservoir is an artificial reservoir impounded by the Painted Rock Dam. The reservoir, with a maximum storage capacity of 2,491,700 acre feet (3.0735×109 m3), has the potential to be the largest reservoir completely within the borders of the state of Arizona, but because the Gila River and its main tributary, the Salt River, are generally almost always completely diverted for irrigation and municipal water use for Phoenix, the lake is often dry.
In 2005, heavy runoff filled the reservoir to record levels, swelling the lake to become the second largest by area in the state of Arizona, trailing only Theodore Roosevelt Lake. However, extremely high levels of pesticides, particularly the now-banned DDT, had built up in the farmlands upstream from the reservoir in the decades prior and accumulated in the lake during the flood. The extreme toxicity of the lake rendered it unsuitable for recreational uses and public access to both the lake and the dam was restricted. Similar runoff had filled the lake previously in 1993 and 1980, and in each instance the lake lasted only a few months before emptying due to evaporation and release downstream.
Boating
Fishing
Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, just south of Gila Bend and approximately 90 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona, provides visitors the opportunity to view an ancient archaeological site containing hundreds of symbolic and artistic rock etchings, or "petroglyphs," produced centuries ago by prehistoric peoples. There are also inscriptions made by people who passed through during historic times. Many well-known events in Arizona history occurred near the Petroglyph Site, including the expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza that founded San Francisco, the Mormon Battalion and the Butterfield Overland Mail. Formerly a unit of the Arizona State Park system, jurisdiction of Painted Rock Petroglyph Site reverted to the Bureau of Land Management in 1989.
Picnic tables, barbeque grills, steel fire rings and a vault toilet are provided for picnicking and primitive camping. A ramada is available for group activities. No potable water, trailer hook-ups or dump stations are provided -- these facilities are available nearby in Gila Bend. During October through April, a Campground Host is on site.
This is a seasonal reservoir and rarely has a significant amount of water. When it does form, in periods of high runoff, the water has high levels of pesticide contamination: DDT, chlordane and toxophene. (If you're fishing AZ, you should know is true for the whole Gila River below Phoenix. Be wary of any drainage below agricultural areas out here.) Fishing and boating
are prohibited even on the rare occasions when the reservoir is full.
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