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

, 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 Area
at the Arizona Game and Fish Department
Arizona Boating Locations Facilities Map

Arizona Fishing Locations Map
{{authority control Wildlife areas of Arizona White Mountains (Arizona) Lakes of Apache County, Arizona Lakes of Arizona Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests