hiking AZ trails

Hiking The White Tank Mountains and Waterfall Trail

< The White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell, Arizona, is one of the most popular and heavily used parks in the Regional Park System.  You’ll be amazed by opportunities for hiking and biking, the nature trails, camping, horse back riding, mountains, hieroglyphics, birds, dry waterfall canyon, children’s playgrounds, picnic ramadas, handicap trails, trees, washes, Indian artifacts, and interesting rock formations found throughout the area.  The park at over 29,000 acres is the largest of the Maricopa County parks.  White Tank Mountain Regional Park offers approximately 22 miles of excellent shared-use trails.  The hiking trails range from easy to difficult.  There are handicapped accessible trails available in the park which makes the park all the more user friendly.

Mountains

The range, often referred to as simply the White Tanks, is a moderate sized mountain range whose peaks rise to an elevation of around 4,000 feet (1,219 m).  The Park has both mountain and desert environments and includes most of the White Tank Mountain range.  Two handicapped accessible trails at White Tank Mountain Regional Park allow visitors in wheelchairs to take in the splendors of the area as well as visit Petroglyph Plaza.  During seasonal heavy rainfall, accumulated water tends to rush rapidly through the steep canyons, over time scouring out a number of depressions or “tanks” in the white granite near the base of the mountains.  These white “tanks” are the source of the mountains’ name.

Trails

The Waterfall Trail is in the White Tank Mountain Regional Park and is a popular place for family hiking.  The trail will take you past Petroglyph Plaza, where you will find some 1,000-year-old petriglyphs on giant boulders, symbols left behind by the Hohokam Indians who inhabited the mountains until about 1100.

The range, deeply serrated with ridges and canyons, rises sharply from its base to peak at over 4,000 feet and provides wonderful opportunities for hiking on established trails and includes facilities for picnicking throughout the park.   There are about 22 miles of  hiking and biking trails at all levels of difficulty. The White Tank Mountains Park does not have a trail to the top, and they discourage people from ‘visiting the towers’ with mild threats that it is patrolled by law enforcement. Horseback and mountain bike riders are welcomed, although caution is stressed as some of the trails may be extremely difficult.

With so many amenities, this is a park that receives many visitors in the cooler times of the year.  You’ll find people of all ages on the hiking trails and many of them will have their family pets along for the day.  As with any hiking in the desert Southwest regions of the U.S. you must be careful to drink plenty of water.  The air is so dry that you don’t even notice that your body is loosing moisture at a rate that is much faster than usual.  Be sure to bring drinking water in containers that you can carry along with you as you explore this beautiful mountainous park.

Jere Moline has recently retired and now resides in Sun City Arizona.  He loves traveling and has taken up hiking some of the trails located in the Desert Southwest.  For great videos and information on hiking in the Phoenix area go to http://www.coppertrailstowncarservice.biz.