White Horse Lake in Northern Arizona

We did a day trip to White Horse Lake on Sunday at the recommendation of my brother and his wife who joined us for the day.  This is a very lovely small lake near Williams (or Parks) with a hiking trail that goes around the lake.  This trail can also be mountain biked.  Be aware if you are trying to escape the heat of Phoenix it was not much cooler up there -- 86 degrees.  The lake roads leading to camping areas are paved and they were not very busy which I imagine is due to the out-of-the-wayness of the lake.  There are many hiking trailheads near the lake campground as well (more on the trails at http://www.hikercentral.com/). 

There are some very positive aspects of this campground which make it more child friendly than Woods Canyon Lake Campground (last Sunday's day trip).  As I already mentioned it is small and out of the way which make it much less occupied than the Rim campgrounds.  The children were able to run and bike around on the paved roads without having to worry about getting run over by cars or ATVs.  Most camps are already setup with fire pits, barbecues and tables as well bathrooms strategically placed within easy walking distance of most camp sites.  Make sure you bring everything you need since there is not lake store and any shopping would be a good thirty to forty five minutes one way (slow driving due to 15 miles of dirt road).  The lake offers fishing, kayaking, canoeing and even "wading" -- I saw more than a few people and dogs wading in at the boat ramps to cool off.  Just  to emphasize how quiet this lake was in our eight hour trip we only saw to two kayaks on the lake.

We would definitely go to this lake campground again -- it was incredibly beautiful and very quiet.  However, we would go early or later in the summer due to the higher temps resembling too much of what we are trying to escape!