After The Flood

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONE

The weather had not quite gotten cool enough for any longer hikes down here in the desert so I'm relegated to either traveling up to the mountains or limiting my time out in the sun. Today I did the latter.

I headed down toward the area I went to on Saturday when I got caught in a huge thunderstorm to check out the aftermath.

I went down to the area where the hike to Rabbit Peak starts but it was too far from the mountains for the small amount of time I had this afternoon. Also, for some reason I didn't think this would be a very good place to park.

I drive around and find an area to go up some of the washes that got dumped on during the big thunderstorm. There are some section where the water was about six feet deep. Here it was probably only about three feet deep.

Heading out across the alluvial fan I come across a couple of these big white poles sticking out of the ground. I'm not sure what they're here for but they may be a marker of the right of way for the continuation of various roads.

This is a more typical desert marker.

Amazingly, the ocotillo have started to come back to life. The rain here Saturday will probably cause a lot of desert plants to start to bloom again, at least briefly.

From where I am I can look up into Sheep Canyon. When the weather starts to cool down a bit this is one of the canyons in the Southern Santa Rosas that I'd like to explore.

I get quite a distance from where I started but don't have time to make it to the mountains. This area holds a lot of interest to me because it is seldom visited and there are lots of things to discover. Below me is the Salton Sea with the Mecca Hills in the background.

One reason this area is seldom visited is that the terrain is rocky and rough going and there are a lot of cacti to look out for. Also, except when there's a thunderstorm, there is no water.

While the water from the storm on Saturday was up to six feet in places, there is indication of even greater amounts of water coming out of these mountains. Some of the banks, like this one, are over fifteen feet high. I would not want to be anywhere near here in an event like that.

I also wouldn't want to be out here in this rocky landscape laden with cacti after dark so I've got to go.

But on the way back I come upon a few areas that are still wet even after a couple of days of 100º plus weather. I know that somewhere up in the canyons there are places where water may stay for weeks and once the weather cools down a bit I hope to go out and find some.