On Tuesday, Jan 2, we left Alamo Lake State Park, AZ and made our way to White Tank Mountain Regional Park, in the White Tank Mountains west of Phoenix.  A drive of about 123 miles.  Weather was clear and calm (as usual) and about 63.

Along the way we saw these huge haystacks....Hundreds of them!

The locals tell us that Saudi Arabian investors buy up large tracts of mostly worthless desert land, drill million dollar plus wells, and irrigate the desert to grow alfalfa. They then send the hay home to their country.  Seems they did the same well thing over there and exhausted the ground water supply in the process.

The locals are not thrilled with the situation!  We can see why!  Water is a precious commodity here in the desert, there is a limited supply of groundwater that is only replenished by the  rain...which obviously is scarce here!

When we arrived at White Tank Mountain Regional Park we settled in Site 14...

The White Tank Range, deeply serrated with ridges and canyons, rises sharply from its base to peaks 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 White Granite is impermeable to water and the "tanks" are usually shaded, so they hold water for quite a long time...considering the climate...

The Early Native Inhabitants of the area visited a lot to take advantage of the water supply.  As you walk up the trail you can see their artwork on the rocks!

We are here at White Tank until Jan. 14th.