Hiking in the White Tanks

A few weeks ago, we took a family trip to the White Tanks Mountain Park. It's hard to believe, given that we've lived in Surprise over 5 years now, but it was our first time seeing the actual White Tanks waterfall. We had a great day. The weather was beautiful and the desert was green and getting ready to bloom.

The mountains are called the White Tanks because when we get enough rainfall (we have this year!), there are "tanks" of water up above that spill off and over the edge, creating a waterfall. The tanks are called "White Tanks" because when the water repeatedly strikes against the granite, its natural white appearance is shown.

One thing we enjoyed the most was seeing Lane get excited about seeing all of the people on the trails we hiked, and seeing him interact with their dogs! This boy loves dogs. We hiked about a mile each way to see the waterfall.

Another highlight was learning about the history of the place. We are familiar with what the Ho Ho Kam Indians did on the east side of town (the canals), but we didn't realize that they also dwelt in these Western mountains as well. We really enjoyed learning more about them and seeing the many artifacts and petroglyphs that they left behind. Many of the petroglyphs are in plain view only a few feet from the trail. We learned a lot, and now Anna wants to bring her Cub Scouts to see it all.