Two things are true in the desert: There isn’t enough water, and there is way too much of it. Childs spends the book hunting the first and getting caught by the second. He maps water holes in the Arizona desert, sleeps beside tinajas counting how long they hold, watches bees and doves lead him to seeps. Then the flash floods — a wall coming down a slot canyon, the physics of a wash that was bone dry an hour ago, and the bodies floods leave behind. He nearly dies more than once and reports it flatly. It made his name, and the water-hole fieldwork underneath it is real research.
The Secret Knowledge of Water