Tag: White Tank Mountain Regional Park (page 1 of 1)

Heather, Marilyn, Marilyn, Nick, Ben, Bob, and Mike joined me for a hike of the Mesquite Canyon / Ford Canyon Loop at White Tank Mountain Regional Park.

This is a view of the Mesquite Canyon Trail from the Ford Canyon Trail.

Ben, Marilyn, Nick, Heather, Mike, Bob, and Marilyn:

We saw pools of water on our way down Ford Canyon. Heather says that this was the most water she’s seen in the canyon.

This was probably the hardest (most technical) section of our descent of Ford Canyon.

I stood atop a small boulder pile to get this photo…

Nick and Bob…

It’s very beautiful here. This is my favorite loop hike in all of the Maricopa County parks.

Globe mallow:

Poppies – I don’t think I ever remember seeing poppies in November.

Linda, Bill, Bob, and I hiked a little over 12 miles at White Tank Mountain Regional Park.  We did a loop consisting of the Waddell Trail, up Ford Canyon, continuing on the Ford Canyon Trail, and then returning on the Mesquite Canyon and Waddell trails. We missed our turn out of the canyon while hiking up Ford Canyon; we backtracked and found the turn, but it added a bit over a mile to our hike.

This is a view of the morning sun from the Ford Canyon Trail:

The first part of the Ford Canyon Trail is easy.  Hiking gets somewhat harder after these signs:

Other hikers enjoying views (of the city?) from some large boulders just off the trail:

This is where Ford Canyon starts to get fun!

Linda, Bob, and Bill:

Looking back the way we came.  Notice that the city is barely visible at this point.

Small cacti (mammillaria) nestled in the granite:

We encountered small pools of water along the way…

Linda, Bill, and Bob:

I took this shot from the same vantage point as the previous photo, but zoomed in on this one:

More canyon views…

Approaching a small dam:

The bright orange plant is tamarisk – it’s a non-native plant which consumes large amounts of water and frequently kills off the native vegetation.

We’ve (long) exited the canyon at this point. I think this is a view from the Mesquite Canyon Trail:

Mesquite Canyon:

On Sunday, Bob, Nick, Marilyn, and I hiked at White Tank Mountain Regional Park, which is another of the Maricopa County parks. We started midway along the Waddell trail, and hiked a big loop consisting of the Waddell, Mesquite Canyon, Willow Canyon, Ford Canyon trails. Our total hike was just under 10 miles. Bob and I added on a bit more to get us over 10 miles with 1500 feet of total ascent.

We had a good time hiking at this park. It’s very popular; we had to wait in line for at five minutes to get in. We encountered many people on the trail, probably more than I see in half a dozen hikes while hiking at McDowell Mountain Park.

A short ways after turning onto the Ford Canyon Trail, we encountered a large group of hikers who were ill prepared for the hike. The leader of the group asked me if they were almost done; I checked my GPS and found that they still had about two thirds of the hike yet to go! A minute or two later, I encountered another member of the group. I asked her how she was doing. She told me she was really thirsty. She had brought along a small water bottle, but had drank the entire contents already. I let her drink some of the water from my reserve water bottle. I’m guessing that several other members of that group (who were lagging even further behind) were having similar issues with water, but I didn’t ask how any of them were doing; I wanted to make sure that I had enough water for the hike.