A walk in White Tank

Since Tuesday we've been at White Tank Mountain Regional Park, just west of the sprawl that is the greater Phoenix metropolitan area (we’re actually closest to Surprize, AZ). The park nestles up against the White Tank Mountains in the desert, and being quite close to the city, seems to be a rather popular local destination.

Trail near campground

It comes complete with cactus (lots), desert plants, many non-venomous and venomous animals (snakes, scorpions & spiders, oh my!), a 40 site campground (where we are, and that went from nearly empty to totally full for the holiday weekend), the municipal library (where my kids spent two trips playing on the computers & nearly completely ignoring the books!), nature center and many hiking/biking trails. 

nice photography, Lily!

Today we took a walk up the Waterfall trail this morning. The easy, 1.8 mile half paved trail wound through the Sonoran desert, taking us past several interpretive boards detailing the types of cactus in the area, the petroglyphs that can be seen on many of the rocks along the trail, the people who likely made those marks, and the desert in general. It was an enjoyable hike that ended at the mountain cliff & to the sounds of gently falling water. That was a pleasant surprise, since I had expected the waterfall to be dry (this is a desert after all, and the signs all indicated the waterfall only runs after rain). The small amount of water descending the cliff wall slid into a small, but deepish looking pool and then trickled down into a short series of small pools before disappearing into the sand & rock bottomed dry stream bed. 

We paused for a snack in the shade of the cliffs at the waterfall before turning around and retracing our steps back to the trail head. Morgan decided that he was starving (even after having a snack before we set off on the trail) and was extremely unhappy when I gave him only one granola bar & wouldn't give him more. He proceeded to then tell everyone he met on the trail that he was starving and his mom wouldn't feed him. (It was cute the first few times, then got really annoying really fast and by the tenth time he approached someone his mom was pretty unimpressed. And no, I didn't give him another granola bar! Such a mean mom I am!)

hard to get a pic -spider is 1.5" or so

On the way back we saw a spider crossing the trail – a small tarantula we think. It was neat to see, but in general I do better with spiders when they are far away from me!

The walk back to the truck was quicker than the walk up, mainly because it was downhill & now both of the kids had decided they were starving and tired. The promise of lunch once we got back to the trailer kept them moving rather than plunking down on a bench and rebelling.

Lily looking at petroglyphs

Some days I wonder why I bother taking them on hikes when it seems like all I hear is whining and complaining the whole way. And then, once the hike is done, I hear their chatter in the vehicle, take a look at the pictures, and kid-made videos & realize that they did actually enjoy it (all complaining aside).  

Point in case, the video Morgan made while on the hike. I think it’s rather cute. You can form your own opinion. 

Tomorrow we leave here & head to southern California for a rendezvous with something even scarier than venomous desert animals. Disneyland!  (Ok, I’m scared.  The rest of the family is super excited.)