Desert Casades

A minuscule bead of water coalesces at the tip of an icicle. Despite the chill, warming rays ninety-three million miles away radiate onto a row of tendril-like frozen spears on the brow of a sandstone ledge. A constant drip, drip, drip—a hundred thousand times over—turns drops into collective puddles. Irregular rivulets snake along carved ridgelines, transecting the slope and filling the backside of shallow catch basins, each capped by thin, melting sheets of ice. Growing pools spill over their rims like liquid in a toddler’s cup. Sand grains and windblown debris race along narrow waterways to the next natural basin.

Farther out and far below, the congregated patterns from numerous side canyons become a raging torrent, gaining fury and momentum like a pushcart in a downhill derby. As if fired from a cannon, the gathering torrent blasts over a precipice, nimbly arching before lambasting a weather-worn lower ledge.

I have walked a mile—even ten—just to catch a glimpse of a desert cascade. In fact, my waterfall-chasing travels have now likely totaled hundreds of miles on foot, but it’s the moisture’s flow in the desert that has captured my intrigue and held me harnessed like a horse to a carriage Quiet droplets have banded together in a fierce military horde to push aside or reshape everything in their path, sometimes creating a deafening din. Deserts: where moisture is precious and waterfalls are often fleeting.

Weary and sweaty from exertion, I have lain on waterside rocks, absorbing the sound vibrations of the adjacent torrential roar, occasionally mindful of the spattering mist—my eyes batting to clear the collecting moisture. I have gazed at cumulus puffballs in an azure sky, at peace while the world rotated around the sun that brought this temporary reprieve.

At other times, I have slogged through miles of river, up a coarse trail, or delved into the depths of a canyon just to gaze at the evanescent resplendence of spring.

Note: In this area, consider these places to see springtime waterways: Toquerville Falls, Kanarraville Falls, Water Canyon, Zion National Park, Gunlock Reservoir, Red Cliffs Recreation Area, or any rock-filled area during springtime snowmelt or during a rainstorm. As always, be careful around waterways and when entering narrow slot canyons.