Mountain Surgery

 

When water runs off a mountain and flows out into the broad lowland of Death Valley, it does not slip peacefully or slowly, filling the valley gracefully with sediment.  It rushes in torrents, cutting gashes into solid rock.   

Infrequent, but violent thunderstorms have carved these mountains.  They begin with rain that flows slowly and gently into the canyons, but then a violent, and dangerous for hikers, change occurs.   

As the flow increases, the velocity of water in the canyon increases, overtaking the early flow and gathering it into a great mass of water flowing at high speed—a deluge that comes crashing down the canyon as a massive torrent.  

Thunderstorms have done so infrequently, but millions of times for millions of years.  The result is often a deep surgical cut into the mountain.  

To walk into a slot canyon formed in this way is a trip deep into mountain construction and destruction, to see how the rocks appeared millions of years ago and how the water has cut then down.  

Sometimes the walls of the slot canyon become unstable and great boulders crash down into it.  Sometimes they block the way of a curious explorer. 

When possible, I climb over such boulders, or slither under them to see what lies beyond.  

And sometimes what is revealed staggers the imagination as to how such a magnificent cathedral could have formed.