Today I went for a hike at White Tanks Regional Park, outside of Phoenix. It is a nice park and worth the $6.00 admission fee. Better than going a movie, which cost more than $6.00 anyway, but I am not sure it is better than purchasing and eating a double "Jimmy Buffs" Italian style hotdog. That is always worth the price!
Best to go the park after a rain, that way there will be water in the tanks (depressions in the white granite) and the waterfall will be running. It is hot and the trails are open teh sun beats down pretty hard. Best to go early in the day. The trail to the falls is easy access and can even be made by someone in a wheel chair, at least part of the way.
Probally what I liked least about the park is that it is a County Park. Which means lots of rules and areas that you can't go. Of course I understand why access has to be limited. There has been a lot of destruction at the Park. People have vandalized the petrogylphs, even chipping off slabs of the rock to take and sell.
The petroglyphs were interesting. Not sure how old they are. Some are definitely pretty old, others look like people had tried to mimic the original carvings. And of course insensitive morons have carved their own initials in the rocks. Just they figured why not add their modern graffitti to the ancient graffitti.
Would I go back, definitely. It is close to home and the trails are good for hiking.
