Quicksand
2025
There it lies, timeless quicksand, ancient and devious, disguised and poised to devour, terrible quicksand that swallows empires, dreams and innocent explorers alike.
There it is, savage, silent quicksand mushrooming across parts America’s parched Southwest and now capturing the concern of our National Park Service.
Quicksand so vast it now engulfs long stretches of the drought battered shoreline in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which spawls across more than a million acres in Arizona and Utah.
“It can appear dry and firm on the surface,” the National Park Service tells us. “But may suddenly give way. Recognize unstable, shifting or unusually soft ground, and use caution when entering through those areas.”
There’s already been trouble. Quicksand has trapped a hiker at Arches National Park in Utah.
As we move toward spring, our days of drought drag on. Up in Colorado, snowpack levels which nourish the Colorado River are 61% below normal.
And as we look to our leaders for solutions, we see confrontation, not compromise.
The Upper Basin states, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming can’t agree with the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada on how to share reductions in Colorado River system water allocations.
Federally imposed deadlines have been missed. None of us know what will happen next.
Leadership, foresight and the courage to make tough decisions turn out to be as scarce as the water itself.
They’ve all been swallowed by quicksand.
