Friday Hike – White Tank Mountain Regional Park

Sandy, DeAnn, Bob, Nancy, Linda, Marilyn, and I hiked 10.9 miles in White Tank Mountain Regional Park. We hiked a loop consisting of the Waddell, Mesquite Canyon, and Ford Canyon trails.  Marilyn also hiked the Willow Canyon Trail which cut off about 1.5 miles from her hike.

Starting out…

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Sandy and DeAnn on the Mesquite Canyon Trail. The Willow Canyon Trail is behind them.20151127-_DSC6712-Edit-medium

Marilyn, Linda (holding up her sandwich), DeAnn, Sandy, Nancy, and Bob:

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Marilyn, Linda, DeAnn, and Sandy on the Ford Canyon Trail:

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A view of Ford Canyon:

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A cyclist riding up (!) the Ford Canyon Trail.

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Entering the “canyon” section of the Ford Canyon Trail:

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At this particular spot, there was an easy way down and also a way to down-climb.  Note that Linda (on the left) chose to down-climb!
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DeAnn, Marilyn, Nancy, and Linda making their way through a very scenic part of the canyon.20151127-_DSC7054-Edit-medium

Nancy, Marilyn, Linda, DeAnn, Bob, and Sandy:

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Bob leads the way down another section where some easy down-climbing was required.

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Marilyn assists Nancy down the rock.

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There were wonders to behold around every bend of the canyon.

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I chose to avoid this obstacle by climbing the rock at the side. Linda is being told how to make her way around that small pool of water.

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Bob and Linda (and Nancy, behind Linda) continue down the canyon.

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I climbed another rock formation to get this shot of our group and another group going the opposite direction:

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This is the rock that I climbed last year to retrieve Nick’s hiking pole. We had missed the turn-off for the hiking trail at the side of the canyon. Nick had tossed his stick down a pour-off to the left; unfortunately, it soon became clear that we wouldn’t be able to easily descend that way.

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From this point on, we (again) had an obvious trail to follow.
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Sany, DeAnn, Linda, Bob, Marilyn, and Nancy (still hiking up the trail):

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Saguaros near the end of the Ford Canyon Trail:

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Another small wash / mini-canyon just off of the Waddell Trail:

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We saw these deer earlier in the hike.
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