Love 'em drtygrl, especially that first one with the flatter rocks :D

I like #1 very much. Please don't be offended if I say I'm not such a big fan of #2. The reason being I think that a collection of small, round rocks aggregated doesn't look natural, it looks like, well, someone gathered small, round rocks and put them together. For some reason, the flat stone, accented with smaller amounts of rounded rocks and pebbles just looks more like something that would actually be found in nature.

Out here in the west there was a trend of installing dry stream beds about 16-17 years ago.
Many were so ugly and terribly installed that I think people finally got turned off to them.
Now there is a resurgence due to new landscape ordinances that require a homeowner to keep as much rain water on their own property rather than discharging it into the storm drains.

A lot of the newer dry steam beds are much more natural and organic looking and beautifully integrated into the landscape, I think in part because of the horrid examples of the past.

I think that you can 'get the look' and have it also be functional as a vehicle to re-charge your aquifer.

The installation of a liner, piping, filters and pump is going to be a fairly large undertaking ( $ ) and I wonder if having a dry stream bed might be a better fit than an operational stream bed ?

Drtygrl - The flat stone river bed in the first photo is beautifully rendered.
I appreciate the moss covered large side wall stones and how they naturally move the undulating fall line of the stream.

We added a dry stream bed that runs all the way across our backyard last fall and I love it. It runs along our swale line, and when it rains it actually fills up at one end (one of our buried downspouts drains into it), creating a "pool" that my kids love to play in.

We paid a landscaping company to install it, but I was able to hand select each of the large boulders we placed along it (had to go to 4 different stone yards to find them all but it was worth it) and my husband and I were both there to direct their placement. Two of the boulders are "bridges" across the stream bed which the kids also love to play on. The smaller stones which make up the bulk of the stream bed are river cobble, with larger ones along the edges and smaller pebbles running through the middle. I've only started landscaping around it, but it's already one of my favorite features in our yard.

Photo #2 needs a larger variety of rock sizes. Real stream beds have a base of pebbles and fist-size rocks with the larger rocks scattered among them. often making small dams.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/dry%20creek%20bed/trasonnel/FirstPictures053.jpg?o=2

http://media.photobucket.com/image/dry%20creek%20bed/wendythepooh40/DSCF1515.jpg?o=16

I made a dry creek bed in my back yard and it really helped with drainage during a storm. The grass is starting to grow now! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Dry creek bed in back yard for beauty and drainage

If done correctly with various size stone, they're beautiful. I don't see them as any sort of trend, but if a property is heavily landscaped with tress and other plants, versus bare, it does seem to be more justifiable, and realistic. ;o)

Homeowners often get rid of such puddling by building dry creek beds. Besides the practical aspect of improving landscape drainage, dry creek beds can also be attractive. In fact, some folks with absolutely no landscape drainage problems build dry creek beds just because they like the look of them