<< Devil's Creek - (Part 1) To Be Continued

04/04/12 - Up Some River, Through a Canyon

Much of the Atacama Desert is extremely dry. Even cacti need moisture, and big cacti need even more. While our trailhead might have looked dry, there were all sorts of large cactus telling us that water was nearby, especially in the canyon itself.

We made our way down the rocks to the canyon floor and walked, clambered and crawled upstream. Now and then we'd leap the stream or scramble over the rocks to bypass a waterfall. It was moist in the canyon, with tall cactus about along with a broad variety of plants, many in flower. There were also big clumps of pampas grass, many six or eight feet tall, and we'd sometimes have to fight our away upstream through thickets of them.

Eventually, the walls of the canyon grew lower and we could see the mountains ahead of us. We emerged from canyon-land to the surface, and the canyon itself was invisible behind us.

Cacti seen from above the canyon

Some of the flowers

More flowers

Cactus flowers

Even more flowers

Pampas grass in the canyon

Waterfall in the canyon

Making our way along

More waterfalls

The view out of the canyon

Between cactus and pampas grass

Keywords: chile, waterfall