So… I knew that the Hassayampa River flows mostly underground. I knew that one of the only places that its waters rise to the actual bed of the river is by the Nature Conservancy’s Hassayampa River Preserve. However, I didn’t really want to pay the $5 pp admission, and it had been raining all day Thursday, so I thought there might be water to find in the river.
So, after gathering our assorted field guides, water, snacks, binoculars and camera, we all loaded up into the 4WD and headed out.
Now, I live in a 4 mile long cul-de-sac. To the North and West of our housing development is the flood plain for a river that has been dammed to make a lake nearby. To the East is the CAP canal and some foothills. By road, the only way out is to the South-ish, and it’s a 4 mile drive to the nearest stoplight. Then, if you want to head North, you have to route another five miles East to get to a road that takes you North, or another 3 miles South and then another 3-ish miles West.
But, if you have off-road capabilities, it’s a quick 1.5 mile jaunt NW across the desert, a.k.a., the aforementioned flood plain.
Like I said, we have a 4WD, and I’m not afraid to use it.
So, we took that path across the desert, and met up with a road that took us to the Carefree Hwy. Thirty-five miles West of there, roughly, is Wickenburg, AZ. We found our turnoff at Rincon Road, and headed North, hoping for that river. A river with water, that is. Well, we found the river, but we didn’t find the water. We saw, on the riverbed, that the sand was still wet with tracks from where the water *had* flowed, but we missed it.
Determined to find the river, still, I insisted that we keep driving. According to the boys, I should not have done that, b/c we wasted valuable time that they could have been playing in the mostly-dry riverbed. We took a rather precarious road that made me hope that the tires were in good-enough shape to handle what I was putting them through. I think if I would have kept on that road, we would have ended up in the Hassayampa River Canyon (National) Wilderness. Well, after checking a few links, maybe I would not have ended up there. It seems one needs to take Constellation Road to get there. But, there WAS road heading north of where we were, roughly following the Hassayampa River, and it looked newly-graded. Now, I’m curious as to where that road leads. I’ll have to see if it’s on Google Maps.
Along the “wrong” road, we saw a Loggerhead Shrike. I’ve seen one before, but not in AZ. They’re quite a vicious predator that skewers its kill on a handy thorn, or the like, to eat it like a Popsicle. You’d never guess from looking at him: (I didn’t take this pic.)
The guys still don’t appreciate the beauty of this, but that’s (mostly) all right; I hated the desert until I was at least 25 or so. This was taken on the crest of a hill that heads north from the Rincon Road scenic loop:
Anyways, after all that driving, which included a fair amount of backtracking, we made our way down to the river bed. I had to nurse Baby Bitsy, so I parked, nose-in to the river, and I let the boys run, as long as they kept the truck in view. It was a *GORGEOUS* day, the kind that only happens when it has rained in the summer. Temp was probably in the high 70’s, a strong breeze was blowing… Just lovely.
This wasn’t an “official” nature outing, so I wasn’t pressing the boys to find flowers & stuff, but I did find one very ugly specimen, that turned out to be Nicotiana trigonophylla. It contains nicotine. I pressed it in my Sibley’s guide. (Don’t let that link fool ya. It is one ugly, sticky plant.)
We only stayed 45 min, much to all of our disappointment. But, we had to get home. I had meat marinating and dinner to make.
We packed it up, and retraced our tracks along the lovely Carefree Hwy. Along the way, it rained off and on. We got caught in a major BUG STORM, where some sort of bug just kept coming and coming and coming, mixed in with sprinkled rain, splatting against the windshield. Unwisely, I turned on the wipers, and proceeded to watch them smear bug guts in two arcs, completely obscuring my view. I kept hoping the rain would wash it off. Not. However, we did see an amazing rainbow, whose end vividly fell to the desert floor, about five miles west of Lake Pleasant.
We got back to our desert flood plain, described above. About a half mile from the ”real” road, and a mile from home, we discovered that the normally-dry wash that we cross was a raging flood of water.
Here’s a pic from March of my three handsome young men, in that same wash:
Now, imagine roiling, muddy water over the head of my oldest.
I have to say, as much as I realize how absolutely stupid it would have been to do so, I was tempted to try to ford the water. I knew it would be at least 30 minutes to take another route, and only five minutes home if I could cross the river. But visions danced in my head of: after every rainstorm, there’s some dodo on the nightly news, getting air-lifted from the top of their SUV, b/c they thought their truck was strong enough. And, sure enough, I saw it that night on both the local news and CNN — though not from that exact location.
However, knowing I had a fairly long drive to get home, I *HAD* to do something about those bugs on the windshield. I had literally been slouching low in my seat, peering out through a not-as-smeary patch, and that just wasn’t going to cut it on the real road, especially as it was starting to get dark. The Holy Spirit reminded me of how, as I was preparing to leave, He prompted me to grab a roll of paper towels. I, not thinking that it was really the Holy Spirit, blew him off.
Well, I knew there was my 4yo’s vest he calls his Command Ops vest, shoved under the middle seat. I grabbed that, along with a bucket we had brought for harvesting prickly pear fruit (the prickly pear in Wickenburg had apparently already borne their fruit, or someone harvested ‘em all. There were none to be found.). I scooped up some muddy water, and washed the window with it, as my 4yo fought back tears that I was using his vest. I thanked him profusely for being “helpful” in our efforts to get home safely… 
Forty-five minutes later, we were home. Forty-five dumb minutes. I was a stressed-out ball of nerves when we got home, worrying about my dh worrying about us. I am the last SAHM in the US w/ no cell phone, so I hadn’t been able to call. I had searched my wallet for change, even though we weren’t in an area where there were any pay phones. No change. (He found some the next morning, cleaning out the truck. Doh!) He was worried, of course, but not frantic. It took me a good several hours to calm down. Once I get wound-up/nervous about something, it takes a *long* time for my heart to stop thumping, and my stomach to settle. Martin made some omelets for the boys, and we ate “real” dinner much later.
ANYways… Not the most successful outing ever. But, other than the being-late part, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
