White Tank Regional Park Trail Reviews
White Tank Mountain Regional Park
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.
White Tank Mountain Regional Park offers approximately 25 miles of excellent shared-use trails , ranging in length from 0.9 mile to 7.9 miles, and difficulty from easy to strenuous. Overnight backpacking, with a permit, is allowed in established backcountry campsites. Day hikes can provide some breathtaking views of the mountains and panoramas of the valley below. Horseback and mountain bike riders are welcomed, although caution is stressed as some of the trails may be extremely difficult.
$6 per motorized vehicle entry
Sonoran Loop Competitive Track
White Tank Mountain Regional Park offers an approximately 10-mile Competitive Track in addition to its trails. The Competitive Track is designed to provide challenging, strenuous, and high-speed outdoor recreation for individuals, groups, and organized events. All competitive tracks are multiple-use. They are designed for cross-country runners and joggers, fast bicyclists and racers, and trotting/galloping equestrians and endurance riders.
Another stop of the local Arizona cross country race (MBAA) series. At 26,337 total acres, the White Tank Mountain Regional Park is the largest park in the Maricopa County system. Located in the far west valley, 15 miles west of Peoria. From its base of 1,400 feet, the range rises sharply to over 4,000 feet. The base and upper levels of the mountain are deeply serrated with ridges and deep canyons. Heavy rains causing flash floods, pouring down chutes and dropping off ledges, have scoured out a series of depressions, or "tanks", in the white granite rock below. Hence, the name White Tanks. Some of the best Hohokam petroglyphs to be seen anywhere are in these mountains./p>
The course is great this year. The riders' times will be faster this year vs. the previous years. Let me walk you thru it from a single speed racer point of view. First, you start out in a 36/17 gear ratio. You take off like a bat outta hell thru some pretty flat/fast single track before hitting a wanna-be gradual rocky climb. This where us single speed racers switch gears - in our heartrate of course. We give new meaning to "putting the hammer down" at this section of the course. Okay, riding along. Once that climb has been treated like a small red-headed step-child, we move to a semi-technical section. This is fun for people like Jeff who do not realize that you can suffer concusions when your head hits a boulder or two. So, 1-speeders take this in stride capitalizing on every little break (since a lot of it is downhill) and our heartrates get below 180bpm. After that, let it go and, you guessed it, 1-speeders spin out...right before hitting the old hike-a-bike section that has been re-routed (kudos to whoever thought of doing that - mtn bike race = stay on the bike and pedal, not hiking). Once you have powered thru this section (and if there is a 1-speed raHope you like the review from a single speed perspective and look for my reviews of the following races in the future! Keep it real and RIDE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!
Trail Map
Sonoran Loop Competitive Track Videos
