It’s been many years since I have visited Cathedral Wash — located near Lee’s Ferry, Arizona — and it was time to return. My last trip was so long ago that I was shooting with a film camera!

With perfect weather — warm temperatures, clear skies, and light winds — it was a good time to visit this short wash that leads down to the Colorado River. What we hadn’t thought about — but should have — was that the extremely rainy summer season might have left lots of water and mud in the wash. It had.

The very first water/mud hole we encountered could not be bypassed on the ledges above and we resorted to removing our shoes and socks and wading through the thigh deep water. We were concerned that there would be other water/mud holes and they might not be passable at all but it turned out this one — the first one — was the only problem. All others were easily bypassed.

Once back at the car we drove the short distance from the wash to the river. We were impressed with the tremendous amount of erosion that had occurred during the rainy season. Washes had been deeply scoured and many large boulders from the cliffs above had been washed down to the road. It was an ineresting lesson in how quickly geological change can actually occur.