Searching for Water in the Desert

On Thursday, we hiked up Quebrada Huatacando in search of a hot spring.  It turns out that we couldn't find hot springs, but we eventually found water.  This was problematic for our investigations of hydrothermal fluids in the area, but we learned a great deal about the nature of quebradas. It turns out that water is flowing within these features and it occasionally daylights at seeps that create small streams.  Below is a picture of Rick and Justin on a spectacular hike up Quebrada Huatacando--note the yellow sulphur deposits on either side of the stream...at this point we thought a hot spring was "just around the bend," but it never was...