Phon D Sutton Recreation Area
Mesa, AZ
A recreation area along the Lower Salt River below Saguaro Lake Dam where the river flows through a cottonwood-lined channel. The area provides access to shallow river crossings popular with wild horses and wading birds. Desert cliffs and riparian cottonwood forest create a striking contrast at the desert's edge.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- golden hour
- Crowds
- Moderate
- Shot Types
- wideportraitlandscapereflection
- Best Seasons
- springfallwinter
Author's Comments
The first time I came to Phon D Sutton I did not know the horses were real. I had heard about them the way you hear about most things in the desert, half rumor and half Instagram, and I half expected to spend the morning photographing cottonwoods and going home content with that. The cottonwoods alone would have been enough. They line the Lower Salt in a way that feels imported from somewhere wetter, their leaves going butter yellow in late November against cliffs the color of rust and bone. But the horses came down to the water around eight, the way I have since learned they often do, and the morning rearranged itself around them. What I love about this place is how unlikely it feels. You drive out past Mesa into what reads as straight Sonoran desert, and then the road drops and the river appears, and suddenly there are wading birds and reflections and a band of green that should not exist. The contrast does most of the work. A wide lens to hold the cliffs and the cottonwoods together, a longer one for when the horses cross the shallows in soft low light. Come on a weekday. Come early, before the kayakers put in and the day-use crowds spread out along the bank. Fall is the obvious season for color, but I have made some of my quieter photographs here in February, when the cottonwoods are bare and the light goes thin and silver across the water. The horses do not care what month it is. They come for the river, and if you are patient and far enough back, they will let you stay.
Gallery
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