Everything is happier when it’s had a drink

Saturated colors.

Flowing ditches.

Hawks calling to each other.

Abundance abounded when we arrived at the Open Space Visitor Center less than 24 hours after the city’s drenching. We received nearly an inch of rain Saturday.

Agriculture and permaculture fields pulsed deep green, a scattering of yellow wildflowers breaking the monochrome.

We walked into the bosque, squeaked through a path of rushes and cattails, and came to the fast-flowing river. On a sandbar, barn swallows bum-rushed a Cooper’s hawk till he fled the scene.

Hawks were everywhere today – bouncing from branch to branch at a fancy house along the ditch, chasing each other up into the evergreens.

Butterflies cavorted. A striped lizard climbed up a cottonwood trunk and did push-ups.

We had the bosque almost to ourselves this afternoon. The sun beamed down and humidity (humidity!) still hung in the air.

As we walked back to the visitor center, the same hawk bounced from branch to branch at the same fancy house.

We climbed the observation tower to see the color show from a slightly higher elevation and watch wind ripple the grass.

The desert is a miracle in all seasons, but I have spent so much of this dry year longing for color. I’m grateful that I got to soak it in today.

I wasn’t the only one.

Hike length: 3 miles

Difficulty: easy

Trail traffic: light

Wildlife spotted: Cooper’s hawks, herons, spotted and striped lizards, butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers, barn swallows, hummingbirds