I thought about beginning this post with a meme about a camel being stoked it’s Wednesday, but I figured you didn’t need the phrase, “HUMP DA-AYYY!” stuck in your head all day……

For our first edition of Where We Went Wednesday, I wanted to highlight a little trip we took last week to one of my favorite places! When people complain about Arizona, they always always always mention the heat. I could spend all day defending it (it’s a DRY heat… think opening an oven… SO much better than Florida where it’s like standing in a bathroom with the hot shower on while its 100 degrees in the room…. humid heat is SO much worse… anyway, I digress) but instead I will just share the secret to Arizonans being able to handle it. Simple really. Either stay inside where there’s AC, or play in the water. Nobody is actually out just loving life in 117 degrees. We are PLAYING. At the lake! And the pool! And the river! It’s the best. Honestly, once after moving to Massachusetts, Seth and I visited a water park in July thinking it would be so much fun…. AWFUL. We were freezing! We are used to warm air and decently warm water to play in. New England has kinda warm air with cold water to play in. We didn’t have an ounce of fun because we were freezing the whole time. Arizona heat + decently cool water is the best thing ever in my opinion.

What does that have to do with Saguaro Lake and the Salt River you ask? Easy… these places were my sanctuary. Before we moved across the country, every Saturday and day-off was dedicated to wake boarding on the lake or floating on tubes down the Salt River. It was the best and most amazing way to spend summers! If you are ever visiting Arizona (and I am telling you, you should) these places are so incredibly beautiful to visit. I dug deep in to my Instagram archives to find you the throwbacks from those summer days. How thankful I am that my editing style has changed slightly ;)

On this day, it wasn’t exactly 117 degrees and the water hadn’t quite warmed up yet so it was kind of short-lived, but Maddux had the time of his life throwing rocks in the water and searching for “voof” (this is how he says fish and he will not correct it not matter how often I try to teach him). In order to visit both of these places, you do have to have a Tonto pass in the window of your vehicle for each vehicle you have parked. Otherwise, you could be fined by the park rangers. I think it runs about $8 if you just have your car parked and you can buy them at almost any location (CVS, Safeway, gas station) on your way to the lake. Otherwise you can also buy them once you get there if the stand has someone working in it!

Anyway, we love the lakes and rivers in Arizona. The water backed up to the red rocks, green saguaros and blue skies mean the most incredible views! It truly can be so majestic, especially if you get there around sunset when the sky turns everything pink. You also might run in to wild horses running along the river which sounds like a scene in a novel but is actually just real life!

If you want to float the river, they do have places to rent rafts and also buses that will shuttle you up-river so you can park at the end doing and get shuttled to the beginning (in the summer time, not right now).

If you are driving to Payson from the Phoenix area or vice-versa, I would recommend taking this route anyway! It will tie you back in to the highway but is by far the more scenic route.

This state is so beautiful and I could obviously go on for days. We had the best time as a family and I am really hoping to make it back for some wake-boarding trips this summer!

If you’re interested, you can shop my outfits below. Everything is from Vici Collection! Click the button for the website.

Vici Website