During a hike up this wash in Arches National Park I stopped to examine the texture of the sand wall. As I stood there I heard a weird noise and saw a slight movement in the wall. Alarmed, I quickly stepped back a few steps and as I did so, the wall collapsed.

I guess you could say my timing was good. Or you could say that I lacked good sense. Or both. This was late in the afternoon of a day that had seen heavy rain in late morning. The terrain had been drenched. Streams flowed and waterfalls appeared. The storm was long over by the time I started this hike, but there were signs of the day's wild weather. I encountered some quicksand and several puddles in the wash. Outside the wash, part of a trail was a gooey mess of wet clay. My sandal prints were the only signs of human activity in the wash after the storm.

This is a tributary of Courthouse Wash and flows into the latter very close to the park road bridge that spans Courthouse Wash. My vantage point was at the center of this WikiMapia aerial view.