White Tank Regional Park. AZ

I should have known when Vicki said “you may want to wear that cooler hat,” that I was in for a test. I received the felt cowboy hat 40 years ago from a dental patient who owned a hat company, and being in Arizona, was looking for an opportunity to wear it.

Notice the beautiful flowers

Following Vicki’s advice i donned the cooler sun hat and together we headed with our bikes down the Ironwood Trail near the family campground in White Tank Regional Park.

The park is located not more than 5 miles west of Phoenix and is amazingly beautiful. It was named White Tank 150 years ago because of the existence of a large basin that held rain water half way up the mountain. It seems that the flowing water washed the desert “tan” off the rock leaving the “white tank” of water with a blanched whitish look.

So, off Vicki and I go peddling down a well maintained pedestrian/ bike/ horse trail. I didn’t mind she was in the lead blasting her way down the trail. I was impressed as she launched herself up steep inclines and smiled as she lifted herself off her seat as the bike bounced over pumpkin sized boulders, rock hopping down the gravely rock strewn path.

Yeah it hurts my ego a little when, at night in the Pup, she wins all the time at the card game Skip Bo. Ok, it gets a little tiresome when she beats me at tennis or the board games Splendor or Lost Cities. But biking is what I do. There was a time, not too long ago, that I would train riding 20 miles circuits three times a week for triathlons.

We had left at a little before 7:00 am, my sister Joanne and her dogs Phoebe and Patso asleep in their tent. Now it was 7:45 and we pulling up to our campsite slidding to a quiet stop as to not disturb my sleeping sibling

Very cool. That was until Vicki looked at me with a sly kind of, catch me if you can, grin and said, “Do you want to do it again?”

“Sure,” I said. Trying desperately to hide the anguish I felt swirling in my head. “Sure, let’s go.”

All in all we had a great time. We used Joanne’s telescope to look at the crescent moon, sat around the camp fire and had the most delicious leftovers one could imagine.

White Tank was a joy. It was so clean, so well kept with its nice bathrooms and top knock nature center Vicki and I feel it is one of the top 5 Campgrounds we have stayed at.