Bartlett Lake is a wonderful escape to a large (for Arizona) body of water with semi-sandy beaches that lets you feel like you're practically at the beach. Boats going by cause small ripples that make a lovely wave-like sound. The area is very pretty.
The downside is that it takes forever to get there (I live in Cave Creek and it was a good 40 minutes). The drive in is gorgeous, but time consuming. My husband & I came to check it out on a Saturday, with the intention of doing a hike around the lake. The ranger station was closed and the store where you purchase the $6 required parking pass did not have any trail maps. We started the Palo Verde trail (#512) which after a few minutes, mysteriously disappears. Just vanishes. We trekked around for a while trying to pick it back up, which was fun, but ended up having to return because there was so much cacti everywhere. The 5 minutes of the trail was very pretty, but I'd recommend getting to talk to a ranger/getting a map before going on it. Since the lake is very pretty, we just sat on the beach and read for a few hours. No real complaints, but it would have been nice to have been able to do the hike.