A (dry) waterfall, and a haboob

Saturday was wonderfully cool (only about 100), but there were lots of showers around so I didn't go hiking. I did drive around in some heave rainstorms, though. It was still pretty cool on Sunday (I think the high was 99), and the showers were smaller and further between, so I headed out to a place near Canyon Lake that I have been meaning to check out. There's a road next to an old corral that I've seen a couple of vehicles going down. When I got there, there were signs saying that the road was closed to vehicles. No problem, I was out there to hike anyway.

Parking spot with fluffy clouds.

That vertical sign in the middle says "No vehicles".

My only plan was to wander around a little and see what I could find. When I was beyond the end of the "road", I noticed an interesting cliff to west and decided to get a closer look at it after I got pictures of the nice view to the east.

The view to the east.

It turns out that the interesting cliff probably has a very nice waterfall pouring over it when it rains hard enough. I couldn't get a very good picture of it, though. I would have had to get close to the edge to do that, and it was at least a 20 foot drop. I don't like being on cliff edges when I'm taking pictures. I really need to get a stereo picture from the bottom. I was looking at Google Earth tonight and it looks like there might be a path down to the bottom just east of the waterfall. I'll have to make plans to hike down there during a good soaking winter rain.

Speaking of rain, there was some on the way.

It looked like it might rain while I was out there, but it would probably be a light shower, with lots of lightning and probably dust. I didn't want to be out in it. I headed for the truck and started driving back. As I drove along Apache Trail, I saw dust obscuring the Santan Mountains to the south. When I finally got to a place that I could see across the valley to the west, I saw a wall of dust headed north. It was a classic haboob. We've had several of those this summer, but I was never in the right place at the right time to get any pictures. I was on the shady side of this one, but it was better than nothing.

Haboob heading north.

I was about 5 miles from home when I got into the dust myself. It wasn't very thick on my side of town. Click below to see all of the pictures.

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