Luna Lake is a natural body of water that covers approximately of land. It is located about three miles (5 km) southeast of
Alpine, Arizona, at the elevation of , and is the centerpiece of the Luna Lake Wildlife Area.
Luna Lake has the distinction of being part of the
San Francisco River, flowing easterly into
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, then south, and west into the
Gila River (in Arizona). The headwaters are north of the other main mountain tributary to the Gila, the
Blue River of
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
.
Location
Luna Lake lies at on the
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, as such the facilities located here are managed by that authority. It is located about east of
Alpine. It’s accessible year-round, but ices over in winter months.
Description
Luna Lake is a impoundment of the upper
San Francisco River. It has a maximum depth of and an average depth of . It is stocked annually with fingerling and subcatchable rainbow and cutthroat trout. Because it is a shallow, nutrient-rich lake, it is subject to water quality problems and excessive weed growth. The
Arizona Game and Fish Department annually harvests weeds to help alleviate some of the water quality problems.
Fauna and flora
The following species are noted at Luna Lake.
*
Gray catbird, (South and West of most westerly ranges in
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, and
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
.)
* Southwestern willow flycatcher
*
Bald eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...
*
Mexican spotted owl
* Myotis occultus, the Arizona myotis, a
mouse-eared bat
The mouse-eared bats or myotises are a diverse and widespread genus (''Myotis'') of bats within the family Vespertilionidae. The noun "''myotis''" itself is a Neo-Latin construction, from the Greek language, Greek "''muós'' (meaning "mouse") an ...
* Northern leopard frog
* Chiricahua leopard frog
*
Clover
Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversit ...
: ''Trifolium neurophyllum'', ''"
White Mountains clover"''
* Gila groundsel, ''Senecio quaerens'', ''
Senecio''
Fish species
*
Rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...
*
Yellowstone cutthroat trout
References
*
External links
Luna Lake Wildlife Areaat the
Arizona Game and Fish Department
Arizona Boating Locations Facilities MapArizona Fishing Locations Map
{{authority control
Wildlife areas of Arizona
White Mountains (Arizona)
Lakes of Apache County, Arizona
Lakes of Arizona
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests