In this video, Jeff talks all about desert washes, including what they are, where you can find them, and how to stay safe around them. If you’re looking for recreational Arizona land for sale, knowing about desert washes can help you find the right property for you.
From the video:
Hey, this is Jeff with Southwest Land Deals. And we were out looking at some property out here in Western Arizona, over in Yuma and La Paz County. Something that’s pretty unique to the Southwest are washes. And you can see one behind me, I found a good one here, and basically what that is, is a dry river bed.
A couple times a year when we do get some rain, and here in Arizona we get over 300 days of sunshine, but we do get some rains, and it will come roaring down these washes. And a lot of common mistakes is people think that they can drive up a wash, which you’re really not supposed to: 1) because it’s unsafe in case of a flash flood and 2) it’s usually sandier soil as you can see behind me, sandier soil, and so it’s easy to get stuck.
But the washes are definitely a source of vegetation and wildlife and a lot of times walking down in the washes or around the washes, you’re going to see a lot, as you can see behind me, there’s a lot greener trees than out here in the desert. And then what I wanted to show you was this, if you can see back here, the amount of brush. So that was when a big rain storm came through and it pushed all that brush and trees, like there’s literally a tree back there, down this, down the wash. And so it really can be pretty scary.
If you’re out in Arizona or the Southwest and you see a wash that’s running, you definitely don’t want to try to cross it because there’s a good chance you’ll get stuck. But, like I said, they’re kind of unique, it’s always a great place to find wildlife and some great vegetation. Right behind me here is a Palo Verde tree, which is our state tree here in Arizona.
So hopefully that’s helpful in terms of just seeing what a wash is, and this just off the road. So if we were driving up this road behind me here, you can see it’s just a dip in the, a dip in the road and then you have the wash here and then it dips back up. And so, usually this is just like I said, where the water runs down, but when it rains it doesn’t settle in very well. It just rush, rushes down and it can carry some pretty big stuff with it.
So anyways, if you’re out looking at land, just be aware of that, that you’re really not supposed to drive up the washes to get to the thing and then it’s also a really cool place to find stuff to look at.