Lyman Lake State Park

Park Is Open

Lyman Lake State Park re-opened on May 24th. The park will be open through September 6th, 2010. You may place a reservation for a cabin or yurt in this time frame. Learn More

Lyman Lake State Parks offers great water recreation opportunities like waterskiing.

Created as an irrigation reservoir by damming the Little Colorado River, Lyman Lake State Park is a 1,200-acre park that encompasses the shoreline of a 1,500-acre reservoir at an elevation of 6,000 feet. It is fed by snowmelt from the slopes of Mount Baldy and Escudilla Mountain, the second and third highest mountains in Arizona. Water is channeled into this river valley from a 790-square-mile watershed extending into New Mexico. Note: There are no boat rentals at this park.

Because of its size, Lyman Lake is one of the few bodies of water in northeastern Arizona with no size restrictions on boats. The west end of the lake is buoyed off and restricted as a no wake area (5 mph). This allows the angler a chance at a variety of fish without the proximity of speedboats and water-skiers. The fishery consists of walleye, channel catfish and largemouth bass. The large remainder of the lake is open for all other types of water sports.

Lyman Lake really comes into its own during the spring, summer, and fall. Summer days, with temperature highs in the 80's to low 90's, are perfect for fishing, swimming, leisure boating, water-skiing, hiking or just plain relaxing.

Prehistory of the Area: Rattlesnake Point Pueblo & Petroglyph Trail

The central petroglyph is the water serpent. When Hopi ancestors were given a sign to stop and settle in an area, sometimes there would be no water. So these people, through ceremony, would pray to the water serpent underground. The water serpent. whose domain is under the ground. would answer by churning around, which would force water to seep out of the ground. Learn more by downloading the Interpretive Guide below.

Besides providing recreational opportunities, the park offers a glimpse of prehistory of Arizona. Rattlesnake Point Pueblo was a medium-sized village that was home to about 15 families between AD 1325 and 1390. It was one story tall and had between 80 and 90 rooms. The pueblo was built and occupied by the ancestors of the Hopi, and perhaps other, Pueblo Indian groups. The prehistoric inhabitants of the upper Little Colorado River drainage left a rich material record of their time in the valley. The ruined buildings, artifacts, and petroglyphs ("rock art'') provide the scientific evidence that permits archaeologists to understand the area's prehistory. Hopi people see the abandoned houses, broken pottery, and markings on the rocks as a record left by their ancestors during the migrations described in Hopi oral tradition. Scientific archaeology and Hopi oral tradition provide two ways of assigning meaning to the physical record of human occupation of this area.

Science provides a framework for seeking testable answers to an evolving set of questions. For scientific archaeology, these questions concern past human behavior. The artifacts, the architecture, and the petroglyphs that archaeologists study provide the evidence that allows them to answer the questions they pose.

Hopi oral tradition provides, for Hopis, a different way of knowing the past. At Hopi, each dan has a narrative of its own history, from emergence, through migration, to eventual settlement on the Hopi mesas. These dan narratives, passed down in both secular and sacred contexts, together comprise Hopi history. This knowledge of the past is deeply grounded in religion, reinforced through ritual, and made apparent in ruined villages, ancient pottery, and the marks left on the rocks.

To learn more, download an intrepretive guide about Rattlesnake Point Pueblo and the Petroglyph Trail. Download Prehistory Intrepretive Booklet ( 1.8 MB PDF)

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Lyman Lake State Park

Park Is Open

Prehistory of the Area: Rattlesnake Point Pueblo & Petroglyph Trail