A strong hiker once told me that he disliked walking on the loose gravel of arroyos in the desert. Dogs love a surface like that -- only a beach could be better. Every now and then you find an arroyo that has a packed, tight surface. Sometimes this happens after rains. But most arroyos are indeed rather loose to walk on.
Somehow I only recently noticed the firmer and higher arroyos that run parallel to the main arroyos. For fun, let's call them arroyos altos, using fake Spanish. Apparently arroyos altos see water flow much less frequently than the main arroyo, arroyo bajo. Therefore the arroyo alto has less rounded, pebble-like gravel. And it has more dirt and vegetation. But it isn't as sharp and uncomfortable as the main part of the desert.
While enjoying walking on one of these arroyos altos the other day, my dog took after her first jackrabbit of the entire winter! With all the green vegetation in the desert this winter, you'd think that jackrabbit bunnies would be all over the place by now. (The gestation period is seven weeks.)
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