You are broad and enjoy a leisurely meander at least as much as do the other rivers, but you’re operating at a deeper level than they are – surrounded by tall, near-vertical walls in a channel you cut for yourself long ago, possibly following some difficult, erosive transition period. You are an indication that time and healing are powerful.
Some F-type rivers are still evolving. They continue broadening their boundaries (that is, eroding the channel walls) in order to create space on which to build an accessible floodplain. It’s part of the natural restoration process but messy. Other F-types are fully healed and stable.
Either way, you’re considered isolated in that:
- It’s hard to access your true self (though worth it!), and
- You rarely spill out onto the surroundings, instead relying on your own capacity to accommodate flood flows.
Hydrologists call you entrenched, literally meaning in-a-trench (without the “fixed” connotation the word has in non-technical English). That sounds severe, but in reality, your dignified beauty is impressive: You are one of the most visited and photographed kinds of rivers on earth perhaps because you inspire hope that maturity and healing are not only possible but gorgeous.
Horseshoe Bend, Colorado River, Arizona, istock photo
Click HERE to return to the list with links to all 8 types
For more F photos and stories, click on these links to other part of my site:
[This personality typing system is based on the Rosgen Stream Classification System developed by Dave Rosgen of Wildland Hydrology and presented in his book Applied River Morphology and his Catena journal article — not that he has endorsed using it for personality typing!]
Like a River... 