Description
Blue as the Skies Above, Wild Irises, Mormon Lake and San Francisco Peaks
Bloomed 6-18-2023
Original Oil on Canvas 30×60 $14000
Adventurers have passed this view for centuries. Mormon lake is thirty miles south of Flagstaff along one of my favorite roadways in Arizona. It’s the largest natural lake in the state, and it’s about four miles wide by seven miles long when it’s full (but it’s rarely full).
I first came here in the late 80’s to camp. Our neighbors had a beautiful black labrador who was involved in field trials at the lake, which were fun to watch, so we went along. I was still new to Arizona. I kept looking for the actual lake, but all I saw was marsh. Evidence of the lake was everywhere, though. There was a small town along the banks with a lodge and restaurant built originally in 1924 for loggers and ranchers. There were small cabins along what looked like the shore; but again, there was no water. There was also a road that circled the lake that we rode our bikes around, but no lake view.
Eventually I would learn that the lake doesn’t hold water because it’s shallow and there is no constant flow of water; it’s only fed by runoff. But full or not, it’s home to an abundance of wildlife, including blue herons, osprey, bald eagles and elk.
On this June day, the lake was full. Winter snowfall and spring rain made all things possible. We had been out exploring for the day and pulled off to look. Many locals and visitors were marveling at the lake level. There were large herds of elk wading in the water, and the wild irises were blooming near the shore and along the road.
I closed my eyes and imagined what Martha Summerhayes thought when she passed by here in 1874. She had been on a long journey with her army husband, from San Francisco around Baja, California, on a steam boat UP the Colorado river, and then overland to Prescott. She was headed for Fort Apache. She had been hot and tired for months. Twenty miles from here she camped at Stoneman, the only other natural lake in Arizona. Also fed by runoff, it must have been such a sight. In her book, “Vanished Arizona”, she writes:
“Our camp was beautiful beyond description, and lay near the edge of a mesa, whence we could look down upon a lovely lake. It was a complete surprise to us as points of scenery were not much known or talked about then in Arizona. Ponds and lakes were unheard of. They did not seem to exist in that drear land of arid wastes. We never heard of water except that of the Colorado or the Gila, or the rivers or the tanks and basins, and irrigation ditches of the settlers. But here was a real Italian lake, a lake as blue as the skies above us. We feasted our eyes and our very souls upon it.”
What a pleasure to see this special Arizona Lake in all its glory, and wild Irises swaying the breeze in the last light of the day.
