A Coyote at Pawnee Arroyo

A coyote watches as summer rain brings water rushing into an arroyo in the Pawnee National Grasslands of Colorado. ... more

by Ric Soulen

Title

A Coyote at Pawnee Arroyo

Artist

Ric Soulen

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photograph

Description

A coyote watches as summer rain brings water rushing into an arroyo in the Pawnee National Grasslands of Colorado.

Arroyo is a Spanish word translated as brook, and also called a wash is usually a dry creek or stream bed gulch that temporarily or seasonally fills and flows after sufficient rain. The term usually applies to a sloped or mountainous terrain in desert climates. Flash flooding can cause the cutting of deep arroyos or deposition of sediment on flooded lands.

Pawnee National Grassland is a United States National Grassland located in northeastern Colorado on the Colorado Eastern Plains. The grassland is located in the South Platte River basin in remote northern and extreme northeastern Weld County between Greeley and Sterling. It comprises two parcels totaling 193,060 acres largely between State Highway 14 and the Wyoming border. The larger eastern parcel lies adjacent to the borders of both Nebraska and Wyoming. It is administered in conjunction with the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest from the U.S. Forest Service office in Fort Collins, Colorado, with a local ranger district office in Greeley.

The grassland is in an especially depopulated area of the Great Plains. It saw limited cultivation in the early 20th century but was withdrawn from farming after the Dust Bowl. The communities of Keota and Purcell are located within the grassland. The town of Grover is located directly between the two large parcels of the Grasslands near the Crow Creek. Briggsdale sits at the southern end where State Highway 14 and State Highway 392 meet. State Highway 71 traverses the eastern unit north of Stoneham. The eastern unit is drained by Pawnee Creek, a tributary of the South Platte. The western unit is largely drained by Crow Creek.

Camping is available at the Crow Valley Recreation Area northwest of Briggsdale. The grassland contains several hiking trails, including one that allows foot access to the Pawnee Buttes, the most notable geologic feature of the Grasslands. Bird watching is a popular recreational activity for day hikers, especially at the Chalk Bluffs, a raptor nesting site.

Uploaded

January 16th, 2013