As mentioned previously, there are two side roads off of the Scenic Drive in Capital Reef National Park. The first, only a couple of miles down the road from the campground, is the entrance the what is known as the Grand Wash.
A wash in the Southwest means only one thing…a place where water flows during a rain storm, or worse, during a flash flood. If there are dark clouds in the sky, believe me, you don’t want to be in a wash. And you are warned of that by a sign as you enter the Grand Wash.
This wash starts out as a narrow canyon between the high cliffs, then gets even more narrow. You are surrounded by high walls, and if it starts to rain, you have no where to go but up…maybe.
The road into Grand Wash is unpaved and ends after just a couple of miles. At road’s end, you can park, then easily hike further up the wash. From here, you start to see immediately what flash floods can do to change the shape of the landscape. There are holes and small caves everywhere, eroded away by flood waters, most noticeably at the bottom of the wash. You can look up and see holes higher up, so you know just how high the flood waters can flow. It was quite a bit above my head, for sure.
These kind of geological changes happen over a long period of time and take many, many floods. And while I would not want to be in here when it was raining, it sure makes for an interesting hike on a sunny day and some strange looking photographs. 
Like I said, stay out of any wash when it looks like rain. Flash floods can occur in less than a minute, even if it is not raining exactly where you are. Even though I have only lived in the Southwest for one year, I have seen torrential rains heavy enough to fill up a wash in just a few minutes.
I have a few more photographs and stories to tell you from Capital Reef, so stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment