Page 11 - magazine Spring 2011-1_Neat
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I went out exploring alone during our great December rain.  In the light rain I walked head down, until I was

      stopped by an uncrossable torrent      of flood water.  Standing by its edge I could hear rocks grinding together
                                                                      by  Aaron Leifheit
      underwater as they were                      pushed further downhill.  It was a scene meant only for wild eyes,

       awoke a few months ago to an unexpected downpour outside my Las Vegas window.  When I got to work at Red   taking place under   the curtain of clouds and rain.
 Rock Canyon, the storm was washing rocks over the road and I was regretting my habit of neglecting my windshield
 wipers.  Seven days later, the rain stopped.                   Approaching the newborn river and peering through
                                                                     the mist and branches was like looking inside

 Large storms are rare in Red Rock Canyon and Las Vegas.  This is because the   the engine of a great living factory: pumping
 towering Sierra Nevada Mountains lie directly to our west and these barriers   out energy and organisms into places

 block rain clouds from reaching us.  Lying near the base of the nation’s largest   unseen, scouring, cleansing and
 mountains also puts us right in the middle of the country’s hottest and driest   renewing the landscape, fueling a
 desert which means we only receive a scant 4.5 inches of rain a year.  This   beautiful but almost incomprehensible
 highlights a key fact about life in the desert:  Southern Nevada is a region defined   natural machine.  I suddenly felt
 by weather and the weather is defined by rain.                             self-conscious standing there as if I had
                                                                            pulled back a curtain to look into the

 Streams, springs and ponds are so common in most parts of the country that they   inner workings of the earth.
 are taken for granted.  Here they are rare, and by their rarity become special.  A

 muddy slough in the desert becomes Mississippian in stature!  A dusting of snow becomes Antarctic in ferocity!   A   The torrent of water rushed past me,
 common sprinkle is enough to bring all ages outside, sandal clad, to stare at the few puffy clouds in the blue sky.    following its natural course downhill.  It
                                                                            was destined to flow through the city to

 Once the rare rain falls, it settles into the mountains, seeping slowly downward, finally emerging years later through a   Lake Mead, then on to the Colorado
 spring.  That slow downward percolation also ensures that stored water will continue to flow even in dry times.  Desert   River before returning to the Pacific

 springs are survivors and their hidden permanence means that life will continue here, under the harsh sun, for the   Ocean.  From the ocean it would
 foreseeable future.                                                        eventually evaporate back in the clouds
                                                                                Lush, green, quiet, alive, it seemed to be the     completing a small part of a planet-wide

                               pulsing lifeblood of the desert.  A                                                                                              cycle.
                               tiny trickle of water, barely visible, was the
                               hidden thread that held together and         We are part of this natural cycle as we,
                               sustained a whole community of living        and our societies, are also characterized
                                        things.  Springs seem  to contain power not      by our relationship to water.  This is why

                               related to their size.  Red Rock Canyon is most important.  Here we can see the earth scoured bare, see where our water comes from
      and where it goes, and see how little of it there actually is.  The Canyon is a great reminder not only of the power

                               This hidden power of water was on full       of water but also of our reliance on it and our need to use it wisely.  By protecting places like Red Rock, we are

                               display in mid-December.  Five inches of      not only protecting the environment, we are protecting ourselves.
                               rain fell, more than the Mojave Desert’s
                               yearly average.  It saturated the soil, formed     The washes were dry a few days after the big storms. But was the rain really gone?  I wasn’t sure, but I replaced
 puddles and ran together into greater and greater streams until waterfalls cascaded from every high spot in the canyon.   my windshield wipers anyway.


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