Tenmile Wash is an
ephemeral
Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...
wash
Wash or the Wash may refer to:
Industry and sanitation
* WASH or WaSH, "water, sanitation and hygiene", three related public health issues
* Wash (distilling), the liquid produced by the fermentation step in the production of distilled beverages
...
and watercourse about long in the northern
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...
of south-central Arizona. It forms the eastern drainage of a two drainage system of dry washes into the
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...
Valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...
; both flow northwesterly, and the western drainage is the
San Cristobal Wash Drainage of approximately the same length.
Description
Tenmile Wash begins east of
Ajo, Arizona
Ajo ( ) is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Pima County, Arizona, United States. It is the closest community to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The population was 3,039 at the 2020 United States census, ...
. The
Little Ajo and
Growler Mountains are west; a series of mountains form the eastern perimeter, and especially the
Pozo Redondo Mountains in the southeast. At this point a
water divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...
occurs with the drainage south actually turning back northwest as part of the San Cristobal drainage through the
Growler Valley (and is the north end of the
Valley of the Ajo).
East and north of Ajo, Tenmile Wash flows northwest through the
Childs Valley, on its eastern edge, as the west side of the Childs is drained by the Daniels Wash, again flowing into the San Cristobal drainage to the west.
At the downstream north end, Tenmile Wash traverses the western
Sentinel Plain and enters the
Park Valley through the Canyon Diablo; the watercourse then forms its own watercourse flowing southwestwards paralleling the Gila River to the north. They merge downstream.
Midway Wash is the eastern portion of the Tenmile Wash drainage; it also drains northwesterly into regions of the southern and central Sentinel Plain.
Access
The north region of the Tenmile Wash traverses
Interstate 8
Interstate 8 (I-8) is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, ...
west of
Sentinel
Sentinel may refer to:
Places Mountains
* Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana
* Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica
* Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...
and 2 miles east of
Aztec
The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...
. The southern region is accessed easily in the Ajo region on
State Route 85; dirt roads also exit west from the north-south State Route 85 route, to access other parts of Tenmile Wash.
See also
*
List of rivers of Arizona
List of rivers in Arizona (U.S. state), sorted by name.
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name.
Colorado River
*Colorado River—(downstream-to-upst ...
External links
Tenmile Wash Watershed MapSan Cristobal Wash Watershed MapLower Gila – Painted Rock Reservoir Watershed Map– the upstream watershed:
Painted Rock Reservoir
Lower Gila Watershed Map– the downstream watershed (entering the Colorado River)
{{Rivers and streams of Arizona
Washes of Arizona
Rivers of Pima County, Arizona
Rivers of Yuma County, Arizona
Tributaries of the Gila River