Book Review: The Secret Knowledge of Water, by Craig Childs

Back in September of this year I reviewed three of my favorite “desert” books. All three were written over 50 years ago. Here I review another that is worth adding to your library.

The Secret Knowledge of Water was written about 25 years ago (originally published in 2000). Like the other three books, this one is also timeless.

The cover includes a wonderful quote from the book:

There are two easy ways to die in the desert: thirst and drowning

For those of us who have lived and explored deserts extensively, this dichotomy says so much.

Mr. Childs is a hydrologist. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, hydrology is:

“a science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of water on and below the earth’s surface and in the atmosphere.”

But he is more than a hydrologist. He is also an adventurer, a field instructor of natural history, and a river guide. Childs interweaves all these life experiences along with his scientific knowledge into a journey through the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of the American Southwest.

The Secret Knowledge of Water is an exploration of the American desert, focusing on this dichotomy of water, both rare and torrential at times; a landscape that actually is full of life, which has adapted to an arid landscape. Through a combination of storytelling, natural history, and adventure, Childs embarks on a journey through the vast and mysterious desert, revealing how water—despite its scarcity—shapes the environment in ways that are both profound and surprising.

The book is not a scientific discourse about water in a scientific sense, but about understanding the delicate, often obscure, forces that allow life to thrive in the most unexpected places. His writing draws us into the beauty of the desert and the fragile environments that depend on small streams, hidden springs and sudden flash floods.

The book is divided into two parts: the first deals with the more predictable and obvious interactions of water and the desert—streams, rain, and pools that support life. The author tells of his hikes into the desert, where he tracks down rare sources of water, often retracing his steps to gather water and cache it as he travels through the desert. Each day is focused on and around finding, gathering, and storing water as he moves deeper into the desert.

In the second part he shares the unpredictable and dangerous side of water in the desert: flash floods, surprise deluges of water and the potential lethal power of or unexpected torrents of water in these dry lands. As he describes these events we are reminded of this dichotomy of desert water — nature’s unpredictable power — a metaphor for life itself as an unpredictable journey.

Childs’ writing style is both personal and thoughtful, often painting a picture of the philosophical significance of water in a normally dry and barren land. Not only does he share his personal accounts of desert travel, he also shares his expert observations about the history and geology of the lands he travels through. These different perspectives of personal experiences and high-level view of desert ecology should interest all nature lovers and those how may not be familiar with the desert.

One thing I appreciated about the book is Child’s does not romanticize the desert. He tells us it is a harsh environment. He shares the dangers, not only of dehydration or drowning, but also the isolation of deserts from civilization and an isolation that people might feel while in the desert. At the same time he shows us the desert isn’t a remote wasteland, but a place full of life that is shaped by the absence and at times overabundance of water.

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