The Dream of Thunder River

Many years ago as a young child, I read of a fantastic adventure traveling to the depths of the Grand Canyon to see a fabulous waterfall coming right out of a cave in the side of the cliff. This place of fantasy had the dramatic name of Thunder River. I read and re-read the account of the trip to this fabled place.

Years past, but the dream of the waterfall was kept fresh in my mind. Sometimes I would start to think that maybe I had dreamed about the waterfall and the cave. Maybe it didn't really exist.

One day, I decided to go and see for myself if this place of dreams really lived on the side of a cliff deep in the Grand Canyon. I recruited some friends and took my oldest son, then only eight years old, and we set off for Thunder River. Of course, the reality was hardly dream-like, we had to obtain camping permits from the National Park, find the trail head, walk miles and miles through the Canyon, but finally, there it was the fabled place.

Unfortunately, we chose to hike in August. The heat was brutal, 95 degrees at 6:00 am in the morning. We ended up spending the day sitting next to the waterfall and then walking out of the Canyon after dark.

It is not a trip for the unprepared. We found two groups of people lost in the Canyon. It is dangerous place and really far from any support system. I think about the trip often. It was one of those things, when you get my age, that you don't think seriously about doing again.

Spring in the Desert Botanical Gardens

This is a series of posts on Spring in the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, Arizona. I have added about 60 pictures to the slide show here on the site and I will feature some of them in future blogs.

Earlier in the Spring the wild flowers start to bloom. The cactus don't start blooming until later in March into April and on until June and July. I hope to show the progression of the blooming at the Garden.

Right now, we have the Dale Chihuly Exhibit at the DBG. The sculptures are all blown glass. They are really remarkable

This is a Texas Mountain Laurel, very pretty in the Garden.

Spring in Mesa

We certainly enjoyed that one Spring day in Mesa. No, really, usually it goes from cool weather to hot in one week. This year the weather keeps getting warm and then cool again. Of course, cool here is relative. We think that 80 degrees is a cool day.

This tree is growing right across the street from the Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

One of the major events in our desert is the blooming of the cactus flowers. We will be going to the Desert Botanical Gardens soon, because the cactus start to bloom in March.

Here is a cactus flower picture from past years:

The mystery of rock art

Because of the mostly dry climate in Arizona and surrounding states, drawings and carvings from the ancient inhabitants have been preserved in abundance. From the above paintings in Canyon de Chelly, to the petroglyphs in Phoenix's South Mountain Park, there are lots of interesting sites throughout the state.In almost every description of petroglyphs, they are described as "mysterious." Archaeologists spend thousands of pages analyzing them and trying to decipher some meaning.
Most of the rock art is subtle and unless you are aware of the location, might be missed. Occasionally, there is a huge collection, such as Newspaper Rock, in the Petrified Forest National Park, but even the larger collections, such as Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in New Mexico, have many glyphs that are small and unnoticeable.

The only real mystery about rock art is why the scientists think there is some kind of mystery. Graffiti has been a common human experience forever. If you spray paint a wall it is graffiti, if some ancient Indian scratched his name into a rock, it is rock art. There are a lot of good reasons to study ancient artifacts and ancient rock art. Mystery is not one of them.

The Phoenix area is a good place to visit and see an amazing array of rock art. You might try South Mountain Park, San Tan Mountain Regional Park, and Estrella Mountain Regional Park for a start.

Thanks to Flickr for the South Mountain Park photo.

The Usery Mountain Wind Cave

There are 29 miles of trails through the desert in the Usery Mountain Regional Park. The Wind Cave trail winds up onto the side of the mountains and ends at a huge hollow in the rock face. The band of light colored rock, where the cave is located, is visible from most of the eastern part of the Salt River Valley, although after years of living in Mesa, the view becomes almost invisible. The trail is suitable for younger children, but becomes a little steep and unless they are used to hiking, they will probably asked to be carried some of the way. This is one of the first hikes my children probably remember.

The entrance road to the Park continues over Usery Pass and then down into the Salt River valley and joins up with the Bush Highway. The circuit from Power Road in Mesa, over the hill to the Bush Highway and then along the Salt River to Usery Mountain Road and back over the Pass is a favorite with bike riders. The road can be dangerous due to its proximity to Saguaro Lake and huge amount of traffic generated on weekends and holidays.

Thanks to Flickr for the photo.

Seven Springs

Water creates the greatest contrasts in Arizona, either present or not present. Anyplace there is water year round becomes a mecca for water-starved desert dwellers. Seven Springs, originally a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, is located in the Tonto National Forest. Yes, Arizona has rivers without water and forests without trees. To be fair, there are a lot of trees in the Tonto National Forest, at least in parts. My trips to Seven Springs started as a young Boy Scout camping in the wilds at the end of a long dirt road. There were very few facilities and almost no traffic.

In contrast, on a warm day in Phoenix, Seven Springs located 15 1/2 miles north of Carefree, can look like an outdoor mall in the holiday season, with a constant stream of traffic both directions on the still dirt road. There is a short perennial creek with a picnic site consisting of a few tables. There is also a pack-it-in/pack-it-out campground consisting of four tent sites. You may wish to check with the Tonto National Forest before trying to camp there as the reports indicate there is no camping from time to time.

As with many sites in the Tonto National Forest, it now has a daily fee. Recently, the campsites and tables have all been full every time we have visited, but on an off day, it would be a lovely place for a hike, suitable for toddlers if watched carefully up to challenging and long desert trails. The trails in the area link with Cave Creek and you can hike well over 20 miles if you care to do so

We used to find geodes in the area, but the geode beds appear to be long picked over.

Roosevelt Lake Full

Roosevelt Lake, the Salt River's largest reservoir, is at the flood limit and water releases are starting through the valley. Arizona is one of the few places that has rivers with no water. The Salt River, which supposedly runs through the valley, is almost always a dry, sandy, rocky and empty river bed. However, in years when there is sufficient run-off from mountain streams, the river runs through the valley. This event is generally called a "flood." When the river is running like any normal river, it is a flood. When it is dry, it is a river.

It is a major event every time the river runs, because in their infinite wisdom, the city, state and county governments build their roads in the "dry" river bed. So, every time the river "floods" the roads are under water and generally destroyed. The governments also build "bridges" which sometimes begin and end in the middle of the "flood." So the roads and bridges are closed to traffic. Before they built all the bridges, that used to mean that there were only one or two ways to cross the river, on the "real" bridges that had been built when the river was a real river. But now, unless there is a big flood, most of the bridges work and people can drive from Mesa to Phoenix without waiting for three or four hours to cross a bridge.

Now that we have the ground rules out of way, we read the story about Roosevelt being full, and drove to the lake, about a four hour drive if you return by way of the Apache Trail, a 15 mph dirt road. Anyway, the lake was full. Of course, the pictures are really bad and all they show is a lake with a lot of water, but that is the point, the lake doesn't usually have a lot of water. Maybe I could find a few early photos to show the change. If so, I will post them. I will also tell about the Apache Trail.

The bridge in the photos is across the lake at the dam. It is the longest single arch steel bridge in the United States.

Roosevelt Dam was rebuilt and raised in the past few years. If it had not been raised, the water in the lake would now be pouring over the spillway and running through the valley in a real flood, as opposed to the fake floods when the river is running normally for a river.

Here are some quotes from the news:

Roosevelt Lake, which had risen steadily since a series of storms in January and early February, crept closer to the flood-control limit as water gushed in from the Salt River and Tonto Creek. The three downstream reservoirs - Apache, Canyon and Saguaro lakes - were already full.

Shortly before 4 p.m. Friday, Roosevelt hit the legal top, an elevation of 2,151 feet above sea level. At that point, SRP switched its operations to comply with rules written by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that oversees flood-control regulations.

The utility increased the water flowing past Roosevelt Dam to 1,900 cubic feet per second, about 853,000 gallons per minute. During typical dam operations, the amount of water released from Roosevelt is much lower and fluctuates depending on the need for water in the Valley.

SRP will continue to release water at the required rate until water levels at the reservoir stabilize below the flood-control limit.

We were out walking and noticed the canals were full to the edge of the concrete, now we know why. They are running water into the canals rather than send it down the river.