White Tank Mountain Regional Park

I’m back! Our family spent a week driving 3300 miles through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho. A great time had by all and one of the highlights was trail running in sunny Arizona. I spent two mornings running at White Tank Mountain Regional Park.


White Tank Mountain Regional Park as described by the Maricopa County Parks Department: Nearly 30,000 acres makes this the largest regional park in Maricopa County. Most of the park is made up of the rugged and beautiful White Tank Mountains on the Valleys west side. The range, deeply serrated with ridges and canyons, rises sharply from its base to peak at over 4,000 feet. Infrequent heavy rains cause flash floodwaters to plunge through the canyons and pour onto the plain. These torrential flows, pouring down chutes and dropping off ledges, have scoured out a series of depressions, or tanks, in the white granite rock below, thus giving the mountains their name.

The first day at the park I ran on the Sonoran Loop Competitive Track. While my wife was out cycling, my sister-in-law Susan and I headed for the trails. The loop was mostly flat with a steep rise after about three miles. At that point there is a climb up and around a ridge and a drop into a small canyon. After climbing out of the canyon it is easy sailing back to the trail head. The run was approximately 7 miles with gorgeous spring desert views. It was a certainly a unique feeling running near cactus instead of towering pine, hemlock, fir and cedar trees. I think I could get used to running in the desert. However, I was thankful the temperatures were on the cool side for Arizona. It was fun catching up with Susan for sure. We were lost in conversation so the ride back to Sun City West took an extra 30 minutes due to the fact I missed the turn not once, but twice.

Day 2 Michelle and I ran down into Ford Canyon, which is also part of White Tank Mountain Regional Park. The run was approximately 9 miles. This trail has more elevation gain and loss than the Sonoran Loop. The path is really well developed and easier at the beginning, but becomes quite a scramble once you actually get into the canyon area. The canyon itself is filled with boulders, sand, and pools of water. At about three miles there is an old stone masonry dam, well worth the run just checking that out. The trail gets a bit murky as far as where to go at that point, but we just kept following the footprints and signs when we could. At one point we almost climbed down a treacherous segment thinking it was the trail. Thankfully I worked my way back up and found a more established path. We would probably still be working our way out of there had we not switched back! There are some spectacular views of the Phoenix Valley, the Superstition Mountains, and Four Peaks Mountain at several points on the trail.

If you are ever in the Phoenix area, I would highly recommend this park for some sweet desert trail running!


How to get to White Tank Mountains Regional Park: From central Phoenix, take I -10 west 18 miles to Hwy 303. North on Hwy 303 to Olive. West 4 miles on Olive to the White Tank Mountain Regional Park entrance.