Arizona River Rock – $110
Arizona River Rock
Available for pick up or delivery 3/4-1.5″ or 1.5-3″ in size $110.00 per cubic yard
There is nothing wrong with this ad. It’s rather beautiful. I was simply stunned by the fact that Arizona has a river. Apparently there are 5 major rivers in the state. I’m pretty sure the photos were taken in a less dry year than this one. It’s legal to collect your own river rocks, so why pay someone else to do it? Now someone is going to tell me that California doesn’t have any grizzly bears in the woods. What? We don’t? I think I better quit while I’m ahead.
Welcome To Fabulous Sparkyville 
“Arizona River Rock” is a term of art for a color of excavated river-washed stone, and is not (generally) restricted geographically for sourcing.
Going rate is about $180/ton, And it runs 1.3 tons/cubic yard .
The $180 does not include delivery costs, typically.
So, this is a sizable discount ($185/t is $234/cy)
Spark has failed to limit the delivery area, so I’ll wager that there are “additional costs for shipping” is only from the cost of diesel and the expense of keeping CDL drivers around.
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Rivers have this thing when they have low “pitch”–they form bends following the least resistant downhill path. When a river “runs” in the spring, those bends become eroded, and “bow out” farther. As the river slacks, silt and gravel deposit and “shallow” the ends. And the bends squeeze back upon themselves into sinewy “s” shapes.
Then, if the river floods, the water, not “wanting” to expend effort going around the bends, just cuts them off, leaving what’s called an “oxbow” lake.
If the river floods often, those oxbows will refill. But, as the new channel gets deeper, it gets harder for floods to refill the oxbows, and they dry out. Which then makes them repositories of water-washed gravel and sand at very shallow depth, and easily excavate-able. These areas are often free of trees and other impediments, too.
Former lake and sea beds can also leave handy deposits of water-washed gravel, too, and without the complications of being “in” the water.
Water-washed rocks are preferred for landscaping purposes for being attractive and colorful. “Sharp” sand and gravel, more used in construction is quite a different creature and requires its own kind of mining.
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