Take On the Tanks!

by Chris 4/7/2001

In the spirit of our love for loop trails, we headed out at the crack of dawn to the White Tank mountains to take on the Sonoran Loop Trail. Neither of us had ever hiked in the White Tanks before, so we were looking forward to visiting that last, uncharted range of the Valley of the Sun. From our home in the East Valley, the trip was a surprising hour and fifteen minutes.

The last miles before reaching the park entrance are flat, farmed, and reminiscent of scenes from Erin Brockovich. So the park itself is especially welcome. Like the many other mountain recreation areas around Phoenix, the scenery in the White Tanks is wonderful, with more kinds of cacti and other vegetation than we could identify in a month. The most immediately obvious factor that made this park different from others we had visited was the abundance of people from the troisième âge. There were more retirees than you would see in an entire day of Walgreens security footage, and most of them were driving Cadillacs. Not one, but two whole ramada areas had been reserved by competing groups. The first was more festive and being fed by a catering company, and the second, more sober, was being emceed by various members of the Maricopa County police force.

Perhaps the draw for these fine people is that the park is staffed exclusively by their peers. The parking booth was manned by a gentleman who had no evident clue where he was, and the woman working in the "Visitor's Center" had obviously never seen any piece of the park other than the stretch of road between the entrance and her store. She gave us two critically incorrent indications in her directions to the trailhead, so we will go into great detail in the "Getting There" section at the bottom of this page.

Unfortunately, we missed our friends with whom we were supposed to hike, so we took the trail on alone. This was a new experience for us in that the trail also serves as a competitive track. The parking area for the trail appears to hold several hundred cars, but today there were only a handful and we only saw two other souls on the 5.9 mile trail, two mountain bikers who lapped us three times. Because the trail serves as a competitive track, it is all one-way, with signs and indicators throughout.

The trail is generally referred to as a 5.9 mile loop, but there are variations which allow you to make the trip shorter or longer. There are three shortcuts to make the trip shorter, and two "segments" to make the trail longer. We skipped the Technical Segment but took the Sport Segment. Although the map was a bit daunting, the many signs throughout the trail make the navigation easy.

In all, we were disappointed that the trail was so far from our home, because we loved it. The fact that the trail was a loop meant that we were never covering the same territory twice, so every bend in the trail brought new, beautiful views. The intricacy of the trails means that this trail can be almost as long or as short as you want it to be. And while the trail was rugged, it was never very steep or dangerous, and is perfect for hiking, biking, or running.

It had been nearly a month since the last significant rainfall in the Valley and we noticed that the wildflower season seems to be nearing its end. However, the abundance of blooming cacti, especially the saguaros, teddy-bear cholla, cucumber cholla, and horse cripplers, as well as palo verde trees and chile mesquite provided ample springtime scenery. We saw many, many lizards and one very young rattlesnake on the trail.

In all, this is one of the Valley's finest trails and is worth the visit for anyone. With what Chris calculated was another half mile remaining on the trail, we felt inspired and decided to run the distance back to the parking lot. As it turned out, we were no more than 50 feet away. Again, we love loop trails!

Getting There:Take Highway 101/Agua Fria Freeway to Olive and exit West. Follow Olive 14 miles to the park entrance. There is a $3 parking fee and a map is highly recommended. To reach the Sonoran Loop Trail, follow the paved park road as it winds north for approximately 4 miles. It will dead end into a dirt road with a sign that says "Competitive Track". The trailhead is on the left just beyond the dirt road entrance.

Related Links:
Sonoran Loop Trail Map - Maricopa County Parks and Recreation
White Tanks - Maricopa County Parks and Recreation
White Tanks - AccessArizona.com
Biking the Sonoran Loop - AccessArizona.com
Camping in the White Tanks - AccessArizona.com