1.   For several long stretches, the road and a large sandy wash are one and the same.

2.   As our open tour truck whined and rumbled along a rutty road approaching Canyon de Chelly, I peered through the cottonwoods at the sandy wash below.

3.   It just shrugged off everything I threw at it, playfully scaling the rocks, ditches, climbs and sandy washes without a murmur of protest.

4.   It pours down the mountains and into the sandy washes and canyons.

5.   The early evening sunlight was bouncing beautifully off the ocher-colored cliffs, masses of granite boulders rising dramatically over a sandy wash.