Moonlight Hike

Tonight, there was a Moonlight Hike held at White Tank Mountain Regional Park.  So I started out this evening (without realizing it was 45 miles from home!), ready for anything.  It's a beautiful park, and when I finally pulled in to the area where the hike started, it was so quiet, you could hear the little breeze blowing, no sounds of city life interfering or competing with nature.  That, of course, would change as the hike was "family night".  Plenty of folks showed up for the hike, about 50 in all, I'd guess.  The moon was full, and so very bright, that we didn't need flashlights on the trail.  In fact, we even had shadows of ourselves!  We hiked about a mile and a half down to Mesquite Wash, which is where all the rain runs down off the mountain.  Usually the rangers give more of a lecture, but tonight there were so many kids who were enthralled to be looking for scorpions -- did you know they glow neon green under a blacklight? So that was enough entertainment for them, it seems.  :) 

The mountain range is named because of the white precambrian granite in the mountains.  During seasonal heavy rainfall, accumulated water tends to rush rapidly through the steep canyons, over time scouring out a number of depressions or "tanks" in the white granite near the base of the mountains. These white "tanks" are the source of the mountains' name.

 Eleven archeological sites, occupied during the time period A.D. 500-1100, were located within the boundaries of White Tank Mountain Regional Park. All of these sites can be attributed to the Hohokam Indians. The White Tanks were apparently abandoned by the Hohokam about A.D. 1100.

A little bit of history there.  All in all, it was a grand evening.  The temperature was about 90 degrees when we started out.  You could feel the shifts from warm to cool air in places; it was very refreshing.  If you stopped to listen at any point, you could hear crickets busy chirping away.  As we headed back to our starting point, from the mountain you could see the city of Phoenix spread out in the valley, all the lights glowing and twinkling.  Definitely a good night for a hike.  Wish I'd had more time to explore!  

Just arrived at the park, loved the colors in the sky,

had to snap a picture! (More in another post)