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.