www.iFourWinns.com

So I thought I'd start here with all my friends, then maybe take this conversation over to a general boating forum.

Looks like we may be leaving Las Vegas in the next couple of years. Not really where we want to raise our young children. When I moved here almost 15 years ago it was a very different place.

With that said the Phoenix area (Gilbert specifically) is at the top of our very short list with very good reasons to move there, but none of them have to do with boating. We spent a weekend there, and I got to see two of the lakes; saguaro and canyon.

Lake Mead she did spoil me. 45 minutes of nice road and I am on the a beautiful lake here 160,000 acres. In Phoenix.. about an hour to either sagauaro 1264 acres, or one nasty curvy road to canyon for 950 acres.

Can anyone jump in and tell me the good things about the lakes there. Any tips on Phoenix in general? It's my shortlist because my in-laws winter there, and a happy wife...happy life....

Trailering my Vista is not fun, but I do it. Just don't really need a boat that size in lakes that small. I think each time I launch I may raise the water level, hehe.

Thanks in advance and remember...I can't stay in Vegas, I can't move to Florida (I already asked), and I love my Vista.

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

Sorry, I don't have any experience boating out there, but here is a site that you may have already come across:
http://www.arizona-leisure.com/phoenix-lakes-boating.html

I'm heading out to Scottsdale this weekend to catch some Spring Training games, so I'll try to remember to ask friends while I'm there.

Good luck!

Erik

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

Hadn't seen that thanks for the link! The biggest question I have now is I hear that if you aren't at the lake (any PHX area lake) by 10:00 AM they are full and don't allow any more boats to launch...is that real???

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

My uncle used to live in the Phoenix area. He bought my fathers old 215 Sundowner and took it out there. Check out Roosevelt Lake and Lake Pleasant. Both have some large boats on them if I remember. He really liked to take it to Havasu.

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2004 248 Vista "Amante"
MC 5.0MPI/B3

Very good friends of ours moved there (Gilbert, actually) in 1997--went to work for Honeywell after Norden's closed here in CT. They love it.....raised 3 kids there....Home values soared in early 2000's only to plummet..last I heard a lot of empty houses around the area. He has boated in the past but doesn't have a boat there now....so I don't know too much about lakes in the area....personally I would go out of my mind if all I had was a tiny lake in which to boat....as I have been boating in Long Island Sound for years--couldn't dream of going to a small lake-- The Great Lakes excepted, only it;s way too cold in that part of the U.S......Don't get me started on Florida either--not much of a fan.....I know I sound like a cranky old man (54) but that's my .02....I fully understand the "happy wife/happy life" syndrome, and maybe one day I'll be posting something like you did here....sorry I wasn't much help......love your boat tho'--I've got the exact same one!

-Steve

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"For My 50th"
1996 238 Vista
5.7VolvoGL DP
Previous boats; 91 Cobia 19' Cuddy, 87 Starcraft 16' BR,
67 Winner BR, 65 Arrow 14'

I was in AZ for Spring Training last week. Talked to a few people who spent some time on Saguaro while they were out there and they absolutely loved it. Don't know anything about a cutoff time where no more boats are allowed to launch.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

"During the summer months, peak season, there can be as long as a two hour wait to launch a boat, so get there early. In fact, often so many boaters want access to the lake that there is a limit to the number that is allowed on the water at one time. That number is often reached in summer."

from

http://www.lasr.net/travel/lake.php?AZ+saguaro-lake&Lake_ID=AZ06lk005

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

Yeah, I know that here in SD, a couple of the reservoir lakes have a limit on the number of boats. That can be good or bad, depending on whether you are on the water or not...

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

Wow, a "no vacancy" sign at a lake?? Kind of defeats the purpose of living in a warm climate if you ask me. Michigan, on the other hand, has plenty of beautiful large and small lakes and I'd hazard to guess, very little waiting in line at most of them.

Many people get the impression that it's too cold up here but actually the Great Lakes do a terrific job of moderating our temps year round. Very rarely do we get the extreme weather that much of the rest of the country endures. No earthquakes, no hurricanes and few tornado's and a boating season from May to October.

Life's all about trade-offs but until you experience boating up here you really can't appreciate what you're missing. It's what we call Pure Michigan!

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2006 H190 4.3L
2009 GMC Acadia
Michigan

Appreciate your input, but I was born and raised in Ohio spent a good deal of time on its lakes to include Erie. And I will admit that there is little that I have found better than a Great Lake walleye, for fight and for taste. But the water is dirty, the water is cold, and then there is that ice problem you guys get every year in the northeast...oh and bugs (no mosquitos here)

I have to say Lake Mead is awesome!

it's without a doubt the best lake I have ever seen. It may not be the best of anyone thing, best its great in every rating. Great beaches, great temperature, year around boating, great ramps, great people, great fishing, clean water, its giant in a good way.. Don't like this part go to someplace you've never seen before and it would take your entire life to see all it has to offer. I honestly cannot find one thing I do not like about it....I would stay in this miserable town just for the lake, if it were only me.

Put Lake Michigan in the middle of a temperate zone...maybe you could change my mind.

Thanks for the input.

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi

To be truthful, my wife happens to agree with you. We were vacationing in your neck of the woods a few years back and she thought Lake Mead was the nicest lake she'd ever seen, even compared to Lake Michigan.

Too bad you can't make it work somehow...

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2006 H190 4.3L
2009 GMC Acadia
Michigan

Then you obviously have not been upstream! Cause Powell is IMHO the ultimate Lake!

Now for Phoenix, 20 years ago I thought that I wanted to live there or Las Vegas for darn near year round boating, but after spending time in Phoenix, (in-laws moved there, so I have spent many trips there) Very overcrowded, high crime, no water, no boating, summers so hot can not enjoy outdoor activities..... I dont mind December or January there...

IMO, why leave Vegas and Lake Mead?!?!?! Phoenix as you found out really has no boating, lakes are small and very over crowded.
To me, is sounds like you are going from Bad to Worse....

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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
Videos

True I have yet to make the trip to Powell, and am ashemed that I haven't yet. I have watched hundreds of videos and viewed thousands of photos of it. It looks to be a beautiful area.

With that said let me say why I haven't gone...it is quite a haul! From ANYWHERE. If I didn't need a job, and schools for my kids, or a road to get home (US 89 collapsed into Page http://www.cityofpage.org/) I would have it on my list of places to move.

So another great thing about Lake Mead. Proximity to a major city. Truth is the 99% of us have to work so that we can afford to boat so I need to be somewhere near my industy.

So although I agree Powell is amazing, I disagree that it is an option. And as for the rest of the post, Las Vegas is no longer somewhere we feel we can stay. We don't want to raise children here, we don't feel safe, and the opportunites for us are drying up. I wish I didn't have to say this, but there is more to my life than boating.

Thanks for your input though, definately another reason to make the trip to Powell for at least a week.

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Chris and Alicia
Las Vegas, NV
ALTIVA
1996 Four Winns 238 Vista Dlx 5.8Fi