White Tank Mountains, Mountain range and summit in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States

The White Tank Mountains are a mountain range with multiple peaks and canyons stretching across a large area in Maricopa County. The terrain shows varying elevations and narrow valleys with visible white rock formations that shape the entire landscape.

The range rose along a detachment fault about 30 million years ago, in the mid-Tertiary. Eleven archaeological sites within today's park were occupied between 500 and 1100 AD by the Hohokam, who lived near the water-holding tanks and left hundreds of petroglyphs, some over 10,000 years old. Around 1750 the Western Yavapai controlled the area.

The name comes from natural water tanks carved into white rock, which have long drawn people to this dry landscape. As you walk the trails, you notice ancient rock carvings at various spots, showing this area held meaning for the people who lived here.

Hiking is confined to designated trails within the roughly 118.5 km² White Tank Mountain Regional Park. The most-visited route is the 1.4 km Waterfall Trail, which runs through a narrow canyon to a seasonal waterfall that flows after late-summer storms. Flash floods can surge through dry washes and canyons during those storms, so check conditions before entering a canyon.

The range lacks a single dominant summit: it is a series of ridges and canyons, and its highest point, Barry Goldwater Peak, reaches 4,083 feet (1,244 m). The rock is white granite, and the "tanks" are depressions scoured into it near the mountain base by fast-moving floodwater.