The White Tank Mountains: Waterfall In The Desert

The oldest mountains in the greater Phoenix area, the White Tank Mountains flank the city in the west. Filled with ridges and canyons, the mountain range rises up to 4,000 feet above the surrounding desert.

Heavy, torrential rains cause flash flood areas the desert is notorious for. Though infrequent, these flash floods formed a series of depressions in this area in the white granite rock below called tanks, giving the mountain range its name.

A Visit to the White Tank Mountains Regional Park

Close to 30,000 acres make up the White Tank Mountains Regional Park, making it one of the largest in Maricopa County. One of the many nature preserves in and around Phoenix, the park offers great ways to experience the desert environment. Offering everything from easy strolls to strenuous hikes, many hiking trails crisscross the park in every direction,

The Nature Center: Sustainability in the Desert

But before hitting any of the trails, the best way to start a day trip to the White Tank Mountains Regional Park is a stop at the Nature Center. You’ll find plenty to learn about being eco-friendly here. The building and its surroundings offer one of the best examples of green, sustainable construction.

Built from recycled construction debris, the building’s rooftop is filled with solar panels that produce most of its energy. Even the parking lot is paved with decomposed, compressed granite. And if you examine the building, you’ll understand that its design help shield the windows from the summer heat, while its reflective roof coating reduces the heat inside.

Driving through the Park

After a stop at the Nature Center, we drove into the park. The scenic road took us into some of the most beautiful desert vistas, a world away from the city. We passed more trailheads that we imagined possible in this area. To make navigating the area better, the road is separated into different sections, with trailheads in all of them.

Besides hiking, most of the trails are great (and used) for mountain biking and horseback riding. Campsites offer the opportunity for overnight stays within the park’s boundaries. Most of the trails are multi-use, though the park also offers a few pedestrian-only trails.

The best-known and most popular trail in the White Tank Mountains is the Waterfall Trail. After all, who wouldn’t want to hike to a waterfall in the desert? Even if that waterfall is only seasonal.

The Waterfall Trail

A two-mile roundtrip hike (stroll really), the waterfall trail showcases different varieties of cacti and rocks, sometimes filled with petroglyphs. But most people hike it for the seasonal waterfall at the end.

The fact that we even call this trickle a waterfall speaks volumes about the desert environment. Most of the year, you won’t even see any kind of waterfall here. But if you go shortly after rain, you’ll see water falling down from the cliff. At least a trickle. Only after torrential rain, you’ll find it as a real waterfall, the kind you imagine when you hear the word.

Even without the actual waterfall, this is a pleasant hike, especially during the inter and shoulder seasons. If you happen to see the waterfall it is the icing on the cake.

Living in the Valley of the Sun, we knew we would only see the waterfall after rain. So, we drove out to the White Tank Mountains a few days after it rained.

It wasn’t the usual downpour, instead we had a slow rain that lasted all day, a type of rain we don’t see often in the desert, called female rain by the Diné. My brother was visiting, and we thought we could impress him with a waterfall in the desert.

After a full day of the slow rain we hoped we’d see water at the end of the trail. We were right. Though it wasn’t much more than a trickle, the waterfall that gave the trail its name was there, dropping from the high rocks into the small pool below.

Walking the Trail

My brother, who was visiting us from Romania, had never seen rain in Phoenix and its surroundings. Last time he was here, the desert was its usual brown, with barely any patches of color. Now, since he was here when it rained, we wanted to take the opportunity and take him to see an unexpected waterfall in the desert.

We started out on a paved area of the trail, an easy stroll through some beautiful desert scenery people visiting Phoenix don’t expect to find.

Desert Vegetation after Rain

Everywhere we looked, the desert was green and full of life. Even the normally bare rocks had enough vegetation growing on them to look green.

The giant saguaros, symbols of the Southwest and the Sonoran Desert, filled with water showed off their true shapes at their best. This amazing cactus expands like an accordion during rain while it fills up with water. Since it stores all this water, it can live through long periods of drought, though in the dry season it gets skinnier with its thorn-filled ribs closer to each other.

Reaching a height of up to 40 feet high and living around 200 years, saguaros grow slow. They take about 20-50 years to reach the height of three feet (one meter). Their growth depends on their location, sun, and rain at the site they live in. They may grow their first side arm around the time they are between 75-100 years old, though some never grow any. So, generally, if you see a saguaro with at least one of its characteristic arms, it is at least 75 years old.

Ironwood, palo verde, different varieties of cholla and hedgehog cacti dotted the landscape. Flowering brittlebush added splashes of yellow to the landscape. And thanks to the creosote bush the unmistakable scent of the desert after rain surrounded us.

Ancient Petroglyphs in the White Tanks

Petroglyphs abound in the White Tank Mountains, most of them the work of the Hohokam, ancient people who lived in the desert in and around Phoenix.

The Waterfall at the End of the Trail

An easy stroll, the Waterfall Trail is only one mile long, so we were at the end of the trail in a short time. In the shadow of high granite rocks, we found water in the desert. A small pool formed at the bottom of the seasonal waterfall.

Even without the water, the rocks are spectacular, worth the short hike. During a warmer day, the area offers some shade and cooler temperatures.

And even if I wouldn’t call this water running down the rocks a waterfall in any other area, in the desert, it deserves its name.

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