Apache Lake
— a long blue held between desert ridges.
Not only on a wall.
Apache Lake, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A seventeen-mile reservoir on the Salt River, in the Superstition country of the Tonto National Forest. Horse Mesa Dam closed the canyon in 1927; the water has been blue and still ever since. The road in, the historic Apache Trail, has been closed past Fish Creek Hill since the 2019 storms, so today the lake is reached the long way, from the east. The desert keeps it quiet.
The place, in three passes.
Apache Lake is a reservoir on the Salt River in the Tonto National Forest, about 65 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona. It runs roughly 17 miles long behind Horse Mesa Dam, a 305-foot concrete arch completed by the Salt River Project in 1927. The lake sits at about 1,900 feet between the Superstition and Sierra Ancha mountains, in a steep desert canyon shaped by the river over millions of years. Surface area at full pool is around 2,600 acres.
The water is deep, narrow, and protected from wind for long stretches by the canyon walls. Largemouth bass, walleye, yellow bass, and channel catfish hold here, and the lake is one of the few in Arizona managed for walleye. Surface elevation fluctuates with Salt River Project releases through Horse Mesa Dam, which generates around 130 megawatts of hydroelectric power and feeds Canyon Lake immediately downstream.
The historic Apache Trail, Arizona State Route 88, has been closed between Fish Creek Hill and Apache Lake since the Woodbury Fire and 2019 storms collapsed the road. Today the lake is reached from the east via SR 188 and Apache Lake Road, about a 90-minute drive from Globe. The Apache Lake Marina and Resort offers boat rentals, fuel, and lakeside cabins. A Tonto Pass is required for shoreline use.
