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.

Storm Chaser

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT

And I thought yesterday was humid.

When I walked out of my house to go and do my hike this afternoon I wasn't sure where I was going. When I looked South and saw this cloud formation I knew. I was going to go and chase some rain.

On the way I saw the biggest rainbow I've ever seen; it was so large in fact that I couldn't fit it in one picture. I uploaded a video below with the whole thing.

I got out to some fields in Thermal and headed up toward the mountains near Rabbit Peak. I doubted I'd be able to get very far but the main concern was to be safe and not get lost in the flood.

I got as far as I could drive and got out and started walking. I wasn't going to be able to cross this area here so I'd have to find another crossing.

This was actually not bad. It never got more than just a bit over ankle deep but I wasn't going to able to cross the same area when I came back. It filled up that quickly.

I follow the alluvial fan up a bit and am pounded by the rain. Being in the desert I don't generally have rain gear with me and the only thing I have is a blanket that I use to try to keep the water off my camera. It's not very effective.

The water is really moving down this wash. That bush in the middle of this picture is actually moving. The water is washing it down toward the Salton Sea.

I hike around a while until the rain diminishes. It doesn't help that not one bit of my body is dry. I actually have nothing that will help me dry my camera lens.

I made sure I parked the Jeep in a good place, on high ground. It looks like someone didn't do the same during a previous flash flood.

These floods are nothing to mess with; every year people get killed in flash floods in the desert of the American Desert Southwest. I have to walk around a bit before I find a safe place to cross and get back to where I started. I'm not really sure how far I hiked today but I know this: it was far enough.

Below are a couple of short videos I took. The first one is the rainbow and the second one is of the flood. I didn't bring anything to shoot video on the actual hike and that's a good thing. Everything got soaked including my camera. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work again.