Thursday, January 29, 2015

White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell, AZ

 

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We left Quartzsite late yesterday morning after twelve days of being parked with the Lazy Daze group. We had a really good time but were ready to get away from the dust and road noise. It rained all day Monday so I did laundry while Jim went to pick up a couple things from the post office. They only allow general delivery pick-up between 11 and 1, and he said there were about twenty people in line in front of him.

On Tuesday Laurelee, Libby and Debbie joined us for one last hike, this time off Plomosa Road between Q and Bouse. There are remains of an old cabin somewhere around but we didn’t come across them. It was a nice hike on trails and ATV roads with lots of ups and downs and felt good to do something a little more strenuous for a change.

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Laurelee, Libby and Jim at the top. I bought the same hat in the Big Tent after admiring Laurelee’s. The Australian sales guy is quite persuasive! Besides, I really like the hat.

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 A strange thing to run across in the desert.

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We are now at White Tank Mountain Regional Park, another Maricopa county park near Waddell, about 25 miles northwest of Phoenix. It’s a beautiful park but the campsites are a little too close together for our liking. Water and electric at all the sites for $30/night. And they have a new dump station at the campground entrance.

The lovely Sonoran desert and mountains behind our site. 

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After getting set up we pieced together parts of several trails and hiked from the campground to the Waterfall Trail. We thought there might be water with the recent rain, and we found a little in the tank at the end of the trail.

White tank, where the park obviously gets its name.

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Apparently the waterfall is only there when it is actually raining or shortly after it stops. 

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We also got to see some Hohokam petroglyphs along the trail.

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This is some rugged country.

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Sure looked like a footprint to us. We ended up hiking 5.6 miles and just barely got back before dark. Can’t wait for the days to get longer.

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We have a little shopping to do in the area and Jim has another Mayo Clinic appointment tomorrow. Then we plan to get out of town before Super Bowl weekend.

15 comments:

  1. Nice to hear your write up as we were looking into staying there while visiting Steve's Dad who lives just down the road. Wish it were a little cheaper. Was it very full?

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  2. We made reservations just because it is Super Bowl weekend. From looking on their reservation site it didn't look like it would be hard to get a site most other times.
    It is a very nice park, and convenient. We hate that Maricopa raised their rates this year to $30 but there aren't many other options around here unless you want to be packed in an RV park.

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  3. Love that you are previewing all these wonderful campgrounds for us! ;-> Hopefully we will get the chance to see some of this lovely "Regional Park" system soon. So far, have been only to Usery, and it was beautiful !! Looking forward to McDowell, and now you are taunting us with the petroglyphs at White Tank.

    Best of luck with your appointment!!

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  4. Love that you are previewing all these wonderful campgrounds for us! ;-> Hopefully we will get the chance to see some of this lovely "Regional Park" system soon. So far, have been only to Usery, and it was beautiful !! Looking forward to McDowell, and now you are taunting us with the petroglyphs at White Tank.

    Best of luck with your appointment!!

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  5. Oh goodness I forgot about super bowl week-end. Thank goodness we have reservations all through the winter here in Florida by necessity. How big was that footprint? Sure looked like one to me too. I agree that is beautiful but rugged looking country. I love petroglyphs so I'd definitely hike the trail for them.

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  6. You find the most unusual things in the desert. Better the petroglyphs than the toilet seat. Gorgeous country. I wouldn't go anywhere near Phoenix very soon.

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  7. What a gorgeous hike. Good luck Jim with your appointment.

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  8. Hi Jim and Gayle, We just missed you at White Tank by 3 or 4 days. Would have been nice to see you! Good Luck at the Mayo. Yep, get out of town quick!! -Lisa

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  9. What a beautiful view you have from your campsite! I wonder how the toilet seat got there? Weird. Good luck tomorrow, Jim. :)

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  10. Looking forward to Jim's report from the coagulation specialist… ask him about his opinion the vitamin B/aspirin therapy, but don't tell me if he says it's bogus :((

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  11. What a great hike! I bet that waterfall would be gorgeous with a big rain. It's always fun to discover some petroglyphs along the way.

    Hope all goes well with Jim's appointment:)

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  12. What a great hike! I bet that waterfall would be gorgeous with a big rain. It's always fun to discover some petroglyphs along the way.

    Hope all goes well with Jim's appointment:)

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  13. Love hiking the desert after a rain, especially up above the washes :-) Libby looks like our Tessa. A beautiful view from your picnic table, I think I would be content to put my feet up there for a couple days! But that hike was pretty awesome too!!!

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  14. Just wanted to write back and say that we were there just before Easter and it was a nice park, not many people either. Our time was too short, but we'd stay there again. We were in site 21. Very nice views and spaced further from the others.

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    1. Yes, some of the sites were much closer together than others. We liked it there but it just didn't move us like McDowell Mt does.

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