Ivanpah Tank

This hike travels a handsome little desert wash to visit Ivanpah Tank and Live Oak Tank, two of the many tanks built by early 20th-century cattle ranchers.

Now, before you picture giant steel drums, “tanks” in desert lingo are stone-and-concrete catch basins built to hold precious water. Ranchers constructed them to collect seasonal runoff, ensuring their cattle – and sometimes their own families – could survive in this otherwise parched country. If the tanks look a little underwhelming today, imagine stumbling across one a century ago with your canteen running low. That modest stone wall was the difference between packing up the herd and keeping the operation alive.

The name “Live Oak Tank” points to another desert oddity: a single, big old oak tucked into this rocky canyon, a reminder that pockets of water here can sustain unlikely vegetation. Desert oaks aren’t supposed to be growing in a land of Joshua trees and creosote, yet here one thrives, stubborn as ever. Nearby, the tank built at Ivanpah is largely sanded in, but the setting – with canyon walls dotted by juniper and granite shaped into whimsical forms – remains picturesque.

Taken together, the two tanks tell a story about persistence and ingenuity in a place where the margin between survival and collapse was razor thin. Hikers today get the bonus of a short, easy loop with a taste of both history and scenery – no cattle drive required.