Doug's recent post about solar stills got me to thinking about finding water in the desert. I thought about posing this question there but then decided that since his post was really about solar stills and more specifically how they don't work, I figure asking in that thread would be thread hijacking and it seems like a bad idea to hijack the thread of the message board owner. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

With that said... what are the best ways, if any, to find water in the dessert. I have read the joint services survival guide and the SAS guide and basically from them I have basically gotten the idea that if left in the desert and running out of water I might want to start etching my last will and testiment in to the sand. The closest thing to true dessert survival that I am likely to experience would be outtings (where something could have gone wrong) in far West Texas where water is scarce and the ground is usually litterally rock hard. I'm prepared and extremely familiar with the land where I go in West TX (near Del Rio Mexico mostly). So if I were to run out of water (never have so far) I know where the rock water seeps are (the good ones... the ones that are reliable year after year) and if I were in an unfamiliar area or my emergency situation occurred on that one year where my faithfull rock pools had no water... what then? Digging is probably out of the question unless I happen to pack a jackhammer. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Vegitation is mostly Mesquite, Cedar and Prickly Pear Cactus. The best I can think to do is start sucking on the Prickly Pear Cactus and maybe eat some of the yummy fruits (if it's the proper time of year for them). Are there any other reassonable options? In addition and more to the point here... what about some place like Yuma Az where (if I rememeber correctly from my one trip through there) where the is nothing but sand dunes as far as the eye can see. How could one possibly find water there?

Food for thought (no pun intended). I would love to hear anyone's ideas/opinons on this.