When I made the move to Utah’s Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument from a small college town in coastal Northern California earlier this summer, I had no idea what to expect. \u00a0Growing up I’d moved almost a dozen times and experienced a variety of environments\u00a0and communities. \u00a0I had not, however, lived or explored in a region even remotely resembling the quickly changing\u00a0landscapes\u00a0of high deserts and canyon country.<\/p>\n
When\u00a0I first spotted this river, I was somewhat puzzled. \u00a0It was my first day in Utah and though all the scenery was completely new\u00a0to me, this stuck out! I’d never seen a river flow such a rusty orange. \u00a0I remember assuming it probably always looked this way. \u00a0I pulled over immediately and snapped a picture- my first\u00a0of the summer!<\/p>\n
![\"First](\"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_2932-e1474898461626-1024x815.jpg\")
Flash flood!<\/p><\/div>\n
After spending the last five months living and working closely with this land, I now know that this river was probably experiencing a much higher flow than usual. \u00a0The formidable clouds above meant it was most likely raining somewhere nearby and upstream. \u00a0The river was flooding and loaded with\u00a0sediment from further up the river\u00a0–\u00a0hence the color. \u00a0It’s so obvious to me now, but I when I found this picture it was fun to remember how much\u00a0I have learned this summer.<\/p>\n
Now that monsoon season has arrived (yes you read correctly- our area of the desert experiences a monsoon season!), we know the best spots to go and look for the onset of a flash flood or a raging river. \u00a0One of the prettiest spots to be when the rains come in is a local area known as Long’s Canyon. \u00a0The water flows over the cliff tops and down into the canyon, and it’s just magnificent! \u00a0Usually the last place you want to be when floods could occur is in a wash\/canyon bottom, but this spot happens to be safe Mom, I promise!<\/p>\n
![\"img_2959\"](\"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_2959-1-e1474900955383-1024x1024.jpg\")
Temporary waterfall in Long’s Canyon!<\/p><\/div>\n
It’s fulfilling to know how much the myriad of experiences I’ve had this summer\u00a0have taught me. \u00a0The intricacies of an ecosystem that once seemed so foreign and unforgiving are less daunting and more exciting now.<\/p>\n
Lauryl McFarland<\/p>\n
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I made the move to Utah’s Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument from a small college town in coastal Northern California earlier this summer, I had no idea what to expect. \u00a0Growing up I’d moved almost a dozen times and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7346,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72850"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72969,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72850\/revisions\/72969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}