Arizona - rivers with no water!

River contrast: Northwest rivers run fast and clear, tumbling over boulders and across colorful gravel bed, running in channels beneath towering green fir and cedar trees.

Arizona rivers: No water. Honest. You cross a bridge a half mile long, and there is nothing but sand and some scrubby bushes as far as you can see up and down the river bed.

Well, I have to amend that a bit. At certain times, there will be water. Following hard fierce rains, water cascades down rock-slabbed mountain slopes (because there are no trees, and cacti don't stop much runoff...) into the dry washes that dump into the rivers. They even have - FLOODS - gasp! BUT - very short lived.

So for an outing, we went to a park along two rivers. The Agua Fria "flows" into the Gila River, southeast of Phoenix, not too far from Buckeye. We crossed one bridge, upstream, with the typical dry, sandy river bed. A half-mile downstream, what was left of these two rivers for the season had formed an ever-shrinking pond about a half-mile long. And maybe ankle deep.

"What do ya mean, there's no water?? Look, right there! We can go swimming - well, wading. Well - mud island hopping?
(The bridge in the background crosses NO WATER...)

Where there's ANYTHING to climb, you'll find the guys.


Aahh, so cute! And that water really IS only ankle deep.

This troop can make an adventure out of anything not nailed down. They decided the mud island/grass clumps were meant to be stepping stones, and MUST BE CROSSED to the other bank. It took all of 20 seconds for a plan to be formed and material started appearing to fill in some wider gaps.

The bigger guys could pretty much do it without props, Lee being the first across. So the ultimate goal was to get MAX across with minimum wettage of shoes. By the time they finished, I told them there were enough stones in there for ME to get across!

A gramma's pride and joy - grandpunks! The boys keep me laughing and ever ready for the next adventure!

I'm ready to go back for more! There are the White Tank Mountains, just a few miles away, where I know there is a waterfall. After a good rain, anyway.