Most people driving Highway 77 north out of Show Low pass a small brown sign about four miles up, just past the eastern edge of town, and keep going. There's no restaurant at the turnoff, no gas station, nothing that reads as a destination from the road. What's back there is a gravel spur that runs a half mile east to a cindered parking area, and from that lot a paved, wheelchair-accessible trail carries you a quarter mile to a covered blind overlooking a set of ponds built into a natural depression in the pine and juniper.
In late September and early October, that quarter mile of trail is especially active. Bull elk are bugling in the timber on one side of the marsh while teal, wigeon, and pintail are dropping onto the water on the other. Nowhere else near Show Low do the fall rut and the fall waterfowl migration land on the same short trail at the same time.
A Wetland Built From Wastewater
The site is the Allen Severson Memorial Wildlife Area, known locally as Pintail Lake, and it isn't a natural lake at all. Construction began in 1977 as a joint project between the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the City of Show Low, which fed the ponds with treated water from the Show Low Sanitary District rather than snowmelt or a reservoir feed. Engineers built water control structures, two dikes, and fourteen nesting islands into the existing depression, and the result is one of the earlier constructed wetlands of its kind in the country.
That engineering detail matters more this year than it usually would. Fool Hollow Lake, the other well-known elk and wildlife spot near Show Low, is dealing with historic low water in 2026, and both of its boat launch ramps are currently closed because of it. Pintail Lake doesn't have that problem, because its water level was never dependent on rainfall or runoff in the first place. It's fed by a treated-effluent system designed to hold a target level regardless of what the monsoon does. While one lake's fall story this year is about water dropping out from under the docks, the other's is running exactly on schedule.
| Pintail Lake / Allen Severson Wildlife Area | Fool Hollow Lake | |
|---|---|---|
| Water source | Treated wastewater, engineered and maintained | Reservoir, dependent on snowpack and monsoon rainfall |
| Fall 2026 status | Unaffected by drought conditions | Boat ramps closed due to historic low water |
| What's active this month | Elk rut and fall waterfowl migration together | Elk viewing, but recreation limited by water levels |
| Access | Paved quarter-mile trail, two viewing structures | Paved trails through the recreation area |
Two Seasons on the Same Trail
Arizona's elk rut generally runs September into October, with bugling sometimes starting as early as late August and typically peaking in the first half of October before it eases off. Pintail Lake's own description from the Forest Service calls it an excellent observation and study area for waterfowl, and that fall migration period is exactly when shorebirds and waterfowl move through in the greatest numbers. Those two calendars overlap almost precisely, which is why late September and early October are the only weeks when you can reasonably expect both a bugling bull in the trees and a raft of ducks on the water in the same visit.
Species regularly reported at the site this time of year include:
- Elk, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope, often visible at a distance beyond the marsh edge
- Cinnamon Teal, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, and American Wigeon on the open water
- Black-necked Stilt and Long-billed Dowitcher working the shallows during migration
- Sora and Virginia Rail moving through the reeds, harder to spot than to hear
- Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbird along the marsh edges
Bald Eagle shows up later, in winter, once the rut has fully quieted and the ducks have settled into their season here.
Finding the Turnoff
From the easternmost stoplight in Show Low, at the junction of Highways 60 and 77 and Penrod Road, head north on 77 for about four miles. The signed turnoff sits between mileposts 345 and 346. Turn east onto the gravel road and follow it about half a mile to the parking area. From there, the paved quarter-mile trail leads to the main viewing blind over the northern ponds, and a second branch trail splits off toward a deck overlooking the southernmost pond. Neither trail requires anything more than a normal walk, which is part of why it's an easy stop to underestimate.
The Society That Keeps the Calendar
If the timing here feels precise, it's because someone local has been tracking it for years. The White Mountain Audubon Society meets the first Wednesday of every month from April through November at the White Mountain Nature Center, 425 N Woodland Road in Pinetop-Lakeside, with speakers who focus on birds and the local environment. The society has run organized outings to Pintail Lake in the past, which is one reason the site shows up on birding trail maps well beyond the White Mountains. Meetings are free and open to anyone who wants to know what's moving through before they drive up 77 themselves.
What Changes After the Rut Quiets
The overlap doesn't last the whole fall. Bugling activity typically eases in the back half of October as the rut winds down, and once that happens, the elk half of this trail goes quiet for the season. The waterfowl side keeps going well past that, with migration continuing through the fall and the marsh drawing wintering Bald Eagles once the ducks that pass through in September and October have settled in or moved on. What closes is the specific window when both are happening together on the same short walk. The wetland itself doesn't close at all.
For anyone who's lived along Highway 77 long enough to stop noticing the brown sign, this is the stretch of road where two of the area's better fall wildlife stories are currently running at once, on a trail most of Show Low drives past without a second look.
If you're the kind of person who tracks the marsh calendar as closely as the elk calendar, or you're weighing what part of the Show Low area fits how you actually spend a fall weekend, Jennifer Knaust knows this stretch of the White Mountains well enough to talk through it. Let's Connect.
