What is the difference between arroyo, gulch and wash?
What is the difference between an arroyo, a gulch and a wash?
Nothing really.
Arroyo is a Spanish word for a creek or small river. In its diminutive form it refers to a small brook. It may or may not have water in it, depending on the weather.
A gulch is a small ravine. They are popular sites for prospectors or archeologists because sometimes their sides have been eroded, exposing veins or ore or ancient bones.
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To “dry gulch,” as in the Western movies, was to lurk in a gulch to waylay passersby.
A wash is a shallow channel that follows the contours of the land and allows water to flow — or wash — from higher elevations to lower.
All three can be dangerous places to be because a heavy rain several miles away can still bring a flash flood barreling toward an unsuspecting hiker or camper.
Also, they serve as valuable corridors for wildlife to move from place to place unobstructed and undetected.
E-mail Clay at clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com.