Life In The Desert

As of the last few days, we have left the grasslands and deciduous forests for a much more desolate landscape. Heading through New Mexico and up North through Arizona and Utah, the scenery has become barren. For miles and miles, there is little except for the monolithic geologic formations. The only thing in the distance that obstructs the views of the surrounding area, is the heat rising off the Earth. The heat creates a shimmering effect warping the distant mountains. The mirages create mirrors off the pavement. It's just how life is in the desert.

Passing through

Life in the fast lane


With a parched throat and cracked lips, this environment makes me smile for some reason. It might be because some of my first memories are playing in the cactus filled desert of Baja. It might also be because the environment is so extreme that it's harshness bewilders me. How does anything survive out here? Months without water and months of extreme temperatures that desert life has to endure. But it's not just the harshness that I find fascinating.

It's partly because time never seems to exist in the desert, yet time is probably most easily seen at desert locations. For example, once when I was a little kid in Baja, I wrote my name in clam shells. Year after year I would come back to that same place and my name would still be there. Nothing changed... until they built a highway over it. Yet, time is also the most existent here. Millions of years of weathering has created the present environment. Millions of years of water movement has created caves, canyons, and the rock formations that we admire today. There is no other environment where time is more apparent.

One thing is for certain to me however. The desert is incredibly beautiful. The Earth meeting the crisp blue sky. The desert air tinted a light lavender color. The rock formations carved away to expose every color of red, orange, and brown. A desert sunrise and a desert sunset. Without a doubt it's a pretty spectacular place in all of it's harshness.

 Valuable words of wisdom

Sunset upon the Grand Canyon