Moapa

[abraxas]

Southern Paiute Indians called it, "Moapa", which means, "Muddy River."

 

[invisible]

I still can't get used to seeing so much foliage in your photos, as they don't really look like abraxas-type images I like the different colour tones of the treetops, which (along with the clouds) make this photo special in my opinion.

On a side note, the name of my city (Winnipeg) also means "muddy water" in Cree.

 

[abraxas]

I still can't get used to seeing so much foliage in your photos, as they don't really look like abraxas-type images I like the different colour tones of the treetops, which (along with the clouds) make this photo special in my opinion.

On a side note, the name of my city (Winnipeg) also means "muddy water" in Cree.

This was a bit of a side trip on my return from Zion a few months back. Not a quarter mile either way is creosote scrub habitat, the bare, sparse, environment usually in my photos. This is one of the relatively few perennial streams/rivers in the Mojave Desert. Only 32 miles long, fed from warm spring waters it curves around the Valley of Fire in Nevada and empties into the Overton Arm of Lake Mead.

From about 1855 when Mormon pioneers came into and settled the area, they called it the Muddy River. Officially it was known as the Moapa, which Moa, meaning "muddy", and pah, meaning "water", would be better translated as "muddy water" instead of river. The locals never took to calling it the Indian name and persisted in calling it the Muddy River. In 1960, tired of seeing maps they felt were incorrectly labeled, the government gave in and officially renamed it the "Muddy River." Cry-babies- I like the Indian name better.