Sinkholes

Walking along the Main SW Trail about 200 ft NE of the Grandfather Cottonwood,  I noticed a small depression, the size of a couple of cottonwood leaves. Thinking that it could turn an ankle I thought I'd fill the depression with a bit of weathered wood. I selected a 4 foot long 2 inch diameter dead elm branch and pushed it into the soft soil. It went all the way down - disappeared into the soil. Some sort of mostly hidden remarkable subterranean cavity. I shoved two more sticks in before quitting; and left wondering what had caused and maintained the deep cavity. In the killing heat of the very dry summer, the soil there was broken into irregular polygons with deep fissures between. I wondered then about the fissures as potential refuges or hiding places for smaller fauna. How much more so to have substantial four foot deep cavities in the soil. Refuges for hidden life.

I remember 10-15 years ago walking a quarter mile west from this point, on the same kind of dried wetland soil in the Woods during another La Nina winter like this one, as a substantial rain was pushing fingers of inch deep water through the area. At 2-3 fascinating places the water was sinking, flowing into the soil with a constant boiling of bubbles of subterranean atmosphere pushed out of subterranean chambers. The bubbling went on for a full day. Evidence of hidden worlds beneath the surface of the soil.

Three white-tailed deer running north into the Woods from the Dune trail. They may know they are safe there as hunting season begins.