This is our new campsite for the next week, we’re at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona. As soon as we had the trailer set up Matey and I took off for our first park reconnaissance.
This park has a lot of little trails that meander all over. We started out on the Arroyo Nature Trail and in a few hundred feet came across this flume. The flume carries the water of the Hickey Ditch…
over the arroyo. You can see the flume in the background. The arroyo also has water in it. The Hickey Ditch has been carrying water diverted from the Verde River to irrigate nearby land since 1874.
Not much further down the trail we came to the river. I had to stop and take a video to capture the sound of the water. The last time I’d heard flowing water was in Menard, Texas, over a thousand miles ago. It sounded beautiful to me and made me realize how wonderful it would sound to folks traveling in the desert. It’s no wonder this valley has been settled and farmed for a thousand years.
And with water comes trees. In this case big cottonwoods, hence Cottonwood, Arizona.
We walked a bit further and came back to the ditch.
The area along the ditch was also treed, though these trees were smaller.
Away from the life giving water the trees are gone, the now familiar desert plants are all that can grow.
On the Roam Again 