On a beautiful Saturday morning, nine trailblazers met at the White Tank Regional Park to hike. Three nonmembers also tagged along to enjoy the hike as well as to check out our club.

What a perfect day to hike the White Tank trails! It was slightly overcast, with temperatures in the 50s. After introductions, we started our hike on the beautiful Mesquite Trail. It was a bit cold at first, but as we started moving and the layers started coming off. Our group was a bit large, so I was worried we would clog up the trail, but we were lucky because there wasn’t a lot of people on the trail.

Once we hiked out about 2 miles we hardly saw another hiker. Mesquite Trail is a very nice well-kept trail and easy to follow.

After a steady uphill climb on the trail, we made it to the top and took a quick break before moving on. We continued on and as we moved along we took in the beautiful views of scenery around us.

We finally made it to the Willow Canyon junction after 1.8 miles and we took a right turn onto Willow Canyon Trail. Willow Canyon is not a hard trail but we did get in some cardio as we climbed.

Michael convinced us to take a side trip to one of the tanks in the White Tanks. We were all glad we did.

Local history of the White tanks is that the White tank was the only water for 20-30 miles during the first years of Arizona territorial history. It also gives the mountains their name.

The White tank was destroyed in 1898 and 1902. Heavy rain caused the collapse of the cliffs above the tanks, filling it in. Now the White tanks have many small tanks and springs where you can find small standing water.

After exploring the first tank we continued on Willow Canyon until we got to the junction of Ford Canyon. The trail started with a gentle hike up. Once at the top we took a little snack break.

After taking a break, we continued on the most beautiful part and difficult part of the hike. As difficult as this part of the hike was we all really enjoyed this part of the hike.

The trail was very rocky as we continued down the wash. We kept seeing warning signs with two orange stripes and at one point we saw a sign with 3 orange stripes.

We also took some time to take some fun group photos.

The last leg of the hike was on the Waddell Trail. This trail was fairly flat with only a couple of small hills. Traffic picked up on this part of the trail.

We had such an amazing hike! The company was great and everyone was so nice and looked out for each other. I had some individuals who willingly volunteered to help me with this hike. I appreciate Patricia volunteering to take photos for us. I’m grateful to Michael for taking the lead and pacing the hike so that we were all able to stay together and enjoy the hike. I appreciate Terry for volunteering to be the sweep.

The day was just such a nice day. We hiked 9.92 miles, which took us 5 hours, with an elevation gain of 1532 ft. The hike ended with us spotting an extremely friendly coyote on our way out of the park. Depending on one’s belief, it could be a good omen or a bad omen. I decided it was a good omen for my group.