hardened ground

Hardened ground stretched in every direction for as far as the eye could see.

The footsteps of the colonists alone resounded on the hardened ground.

He came to another gate, then a tiny courtyard where stunted trees grew from hardened ground.

They edged through trunks and branches down a gradually sloping hill, feet sliding on the hardened ground, the result of two dry weeks after a rainy spring.

The wretched tunnels were remnants of the days, five hundred years past, when the occasional cloudburst would cascade from the Forge across hardened ground to flood the city.

The Substitute dodged from stone to stone-until he gained the hardened ground in front of the farmhouse where stone steps led sideways up to the front door.

Increased extreme weather means more water falls on hardened ground unable to absorb it, leading to flash floods instead of a replenishment of soil moisture or groundwater levels.

Cutting his wheel he swerved hard, letting the cross-clipping cab drive him from the road, so that side by side the two vehicles went lurching over the hardened ground like a scene from an ancient chariot race.