White Tank Mountain Regional Park, AZ (11/27/2019)

One of the parks that attracted me to this area is known as White Tank Mountain Regional Park.  I first learned of it more than a year ago from one of my resource books, Hiking Ruins Seldom Seen.  While there are no ruins here, at least none accessible by the public, several native cultures did live in these mountains over thousands of years.  The Archaic culture is thought to date back approximately 7000 years.  The Hohokam people were here around 1000 years ago.  The Yavapai arrived several hundred years ago, but gradually merged with the Apache Nation and today live on several reservations.

According to park officials, these mountains are very old, about 1.7 billion years.  However, Wikipedia describes them as very young, "only" 30 million years.  Both sources agree they are mostly made up of metamorphic granite.  Boulders in the many washes have been scoured by water-borne sand, leaving them white and with many depressions.  These depressions, or tinajas, hold water for some time following rain, providing for the people who lived here.  Early European settlers passing through also took advantage of what they called "tanks".  Thus, the mountains became known as the White Tanks.

The park is the largest in the county with some 30,000 acres and many miles of trails.  There are several campgrounds and hundreds of picnic tables, some under shelter and many just scattered about in clean areas of the desert.  There is also a competitive race track suitable for running, mountain biking and horseback riding.  The course is available for groups wanting to stage an event or just individuals out for exercise.  I never learned how many miles of trail it contains, but it looks quite large.  It's described as very strenuous, not something I want to tackle.

The mountains in this range are generally about 4000 feet, small compared to the Colorado Rockies, with the highest at 4083 feet and named for Barry Goldwater, former senator from Arizona.  To me, they are very attractive, with lush vegetation including all the normal desert plants.  Saguaro cacti are very prominent throughout the park.

The park claims to have a large variety of wildlife, including birds, and I don't doubt it.  However, I saw no mammals and very few birds that were too skittish to get close to.  The primary reason I came here was to hike Waterfall Canyon Trail that was described in my  book.  The trail, two miles round trip, climbs up the canyon to a seasonal waterfall.  Halfway up is a large area of rock art left by the three cultures who lived here.  Beyond that area, I discovered other petroglyphs not signed or close to the trail.  No doubt there are many more on the thousands of boulders scattered about the mountains.  I'll bet even park personnel haven't found all of them.  Of course, some are thousands of years old and weathered significantly.  Also, the symbols are quite different than those found in other areas. I only saw one human figure and none of the sheep or deer commonly found.

At the head of the canyon is a waterfall that flows only after a rain.  I was hoping the heavy rains of a week ago (while I was in Colorado) might still have water flowing.  Alas, there was no flow, only a couple pools at the bottom of the waterfall.  A ranger I encountered on the trail suggested the forecast for rain would have it flowing Friday or Saturday.  It took a little wading and a little rock climbing, but I managed to get a view of where it would be if it were there.

On the return trip, I took a photo down in the wash that shows the white boulders for which the mountains are named.

I also wanted to show you the skeleton of a saguaro cactus.  Those woody ribs are very strong and have been used frequently in constructing homes, both by the native peoples and by more modern residents. 

My best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving!