So Many Water Pockets

I decided to head out to a sandstone rock formation in the area of the Utah/Arizona Border to check it out.  Little did I know that this unmarked formation without any formal trails contained so many hidden water pockets, as in the one above.

There in the distance is the hill range I saw and decided to investigate.  What is very interesting is that you can walk around it and if you were not curious you may never know the water pockets were there.

It was so much fun to explore this hill range and to uncover all the water pockets and the swirling in the sandstone.

I had to do a lot of climbing, but I’m not a climber of any special skills.  It was a matter of climbing higher and higher into the hill to find water pockets that drain when full down into yet more water pockets.

Each pocket I found gave me encouragement to find others.



Swirling layers of sandstone left artful designs to sit and amaze at.

Some water pockets appear to drain and leave just sand, even though rain has been plentiful.  Others held their water to offer a total different image.

I’ll end with this series of consecutive water pockets that seem to each fill up independently but not hold their water.  They grow a variety of plants including cactus in the fine sand that erodes from the standstone hill.

What a fun find this exploration uncovered.  I have spent more time in this year’s travels than previous hiking and looking for things that are not marked and having dedicated trailheads.  I’ve been in the area in each of the past few years and I’ve seen most of the documented features, but this year has been great to find what Is beyond the tourist items.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com