Surprise Canyon in 2008

We checked on the progress of recovery with a hike in August 2008. The canyon looked beautiful, better than we have ever seen it, bursting with life and greenery.

Arroyo willows and Fremont cottonwoods grow taller after the flood of 2001.

Below Chris Wicht Camp, increased flow has allowed the past dry wash to beome watered. Vegetation colonizes the lower canyon.

Honey mesquite, Jimsonweed, and various herbs continue to colonize to rock debris in the lower wash.

Above thr trailhead, old cottonwoods grow over new riparian plants.

The canyon is fast becoming filled with willows.

The old mining mucker, dumped by the floodwaters in the lower canyon, is testament to the power of water to reshape the canyon.

Willows and new cottonwoods along the stream.

A new stand of Coyote willows takes over a spot along the stream.

Scarlet monketflowers bloom along the water's edge.

Scouring rush grows densely along an area once bare from 4x4 driving.

Hyla treefrog tadpoles in a side pool.

The road is gone, and a narrow trail winds through the riparian growth.

Matchweed (Gutierrezia microcephalus) blooms by a cascade.

Bedrock and gravel bars colonized by Scouring rush and herbs, stabilizing the channel from erosion.

Arroyo willows by the gorge.

The gorge, formerly scraped by winching Jeeps, is becoming a lush corridor.

No sign of vehicle usage is seen.

The waterfall with increasing moss, goldenrod, monkeyflower, and other herbs.

The soil is stabilizing over the bedrock, now that tires are not running over it.

Maidenhair ferns are starting to become common in the gorge.

Willows now choke the gorge where off-roaders once attempted to drive

A new willow sapling emerges out of a flood-deposited gravel bar in the gorge.

A road? Scouring rush colonizes the cascade.

Waterfalls and plunge pools harbor life.

Dense Scouring rush and willows in the canyon.

Above the waterfall, the meadow has recovered beautifully from off-roading, floods, and even grazing by feral burros. Lobelia, sedges, rushes, and Scratchgrass grow in a lush wet meadow.

In the middle canyon, the former road has become a dense jungle. Wear hiking sandals or boots that you don't mind getting wet: the trail is the stream for much of the way.

The middle canyon, with Baccharis, saltbush, and willow.

Limekiln Spring

Maidenhair ferns and Lobelia grow at the spring emerging from limestone cliffs. This spot was untouched by the floods that have wrecked through the lower stream vegetation every 20 to 50 years. These refugia act to shelter frogs, aquatic insects, and plants, that later can spead out over bare areas lower in the canyon (as long as annual disturbance like off-roading does not chronically scrape the habitat).

Maidenhair, wild grape, clematis, willow.

Limekiln Spring perched higher above the stream channel, away from floods.

 

HOME..........Surprise Canyon