Mary Ann and I made our annual trip to Aravaipa Canyon on April 29, 2025. We decided to hike the east side of the canyon, which is a longer drive than going to the west side. So we drove to Safford on Tuesday, hiked Aravaipa on Wednesday, and came home on Thursday. This post is for the first day of the trip, when we went to two state parks near Safford: Roper Lake and Dankworth Pond.
On the drive to Safford, the highway between Superior and Globe was closed, so we detoured south to Winkleman, and then up to Globe, which added about 50 minutes to the trip. Roper Lake State Park is just south of Safford. Admission to Roper Lake includes Dankworth Pond, so we went to both.
Roper Lake is a large and well developed State Park. We hiked around the peninsula that goes into the lake. There were quite a few birds on the peninsula. There were some swallows flying around the lake. I don’t usually try to photograph them unless they are roosting, because they move so fast, and are usually too far away. But, they spend most of their time on the wing, so it’s also difficult to get them roosting. I made an attempt to photograph some in flight this time. They didn’t turn out very well because they were too far away, but I included some anyway. I got my first picture of a Bank Swallow.
The next post will be from Aravaipa Canyon.
