Roper Lake State Park

Roper Lake is in southeast Arizona near Safford.  I was really impressed with Roper Lake.  Roper has RV sites, camp sites and even cabins.  The restrooms were really clean and they have large showers.  We went with my son’s Cub Scout pack so we stayed in the group site in the Gila Loop.  Group sites are often away from the masses but at Roper it is in the middle of a loop.  There are cabins around the outside of one side of the loop and the other side has individual camping sites.  This would be a good area to stay in if you are going with a group of people where not everyone likes to tent camp.

There really is a lot to do at Roper and the scenery is lovely.  We visited in the spring so the trees were green, the mountains were covered in snow and shorts were acceptable during the day.

We went fishing…

and canoeing…

and bird watching…

and hiking…

and swimming in the hot spring.

All of the activities are within walking distance from the campsites.  The lake also has a sandy beach for swimming.

Roper Lake is a great place for bird watching.  I was sitting at my camp site as the sun was going down and looked towards the lake and saw this.  (Except when I first looked the entire tree was literally covered in birds.)

Yellow-headed Blackbirds covered the tree and the sunlight caught them so perfectly that their yellow heads were glowing.

I accidently startled the birds and they flew towards the lake and hid in the reeds.  I patiently waited until they flew away as a group.

As the sun went down their bright yellow heads faded.

Overall, I was really impressed with Roper Lake and will definitely go back.  If you are interested in renting one of the cabins there are one or two that have porch swings that face the lake.  If available I would suggest cabin 7 or 8.  Unless you have little kids and then being right next to the lake might not be such a great idea.