2024
Arroyos
Resident, Contributor
The arroyos were always something I was warned to avoid as a child. I do not know if the adults were afraid of the legendary 100 year flood finally making its ugly appearance or if they feared La Llorna had decided to switch from the rivers to the arroyos, but nonetheless, I chose not to explore the big ones as many of my peers did.
Albuquerque, and the entirety of the Southwest in general, is riddled with networks of arroyos; some big and some small. Since cities in that part of the country were not originally designed for torrential rainstorms and flooding, the networks of arroyos were built to divert the water from those storms to the nearest body of water. Although I have never seen the arroyos filled with more than a few inches of water, I understood and respected their purpose. But, there were those who did not.
Every year, you would hear about people drowning in the arroyos due to flash flooding. Living in a place where rain was scarce, I never believed this could occur, yet it did multiple times every year. As such, I tended to stay away from the big ones. The little ones interspersed in neighborhoods however, provided a smooth surface to longboard with friends on, and an easy escape should something unexpected occur. Other than that, my direct interactions with arroyos were few and far between.