For the Love of the Desert
- kaitcald
- Feb 21, 2023
- 12 min read
Updated: Feb 24, 2023
Only in the void, a disorienting space we conceive of as being vacant and thus a landscape of open possibilities, can we imagine ourselves to step outside the boundaries of what we know and receive intelligence from some other place, somewhere alien to the egocentric pivot of our bodies. - William L. Fox
In April 2015, I was a production assistant, clawing my way into the camera department of the job I was on. Through my persistence, I got an opportunity with that television show to take a road trip with a small crew to Palm Springs, California. They even asked me to operate a camera for the first time. Obviously, I jumped at the chance. The gig was simple enough: follow our cast to the desert where they will be recording a song with a high school choir.
We set out on our road trip with just three misfit production folks: myself — production assistant/camera assistant/camera operator, another camera operator and our field producer/post producer (the one in charge). It felt exclusive and cool to be with them, driving down Interstate 10 with the windows cracked and the music loud. I was driving with one hand out the window, lost in my thoughts, when my producer leaned over and asked, “You ever been to the desert before?”
I hadn’t been. I didn’t know the desert. I knew cornfields, great plains, lakes and rivers. I knew rows of maple and oak trees with leaves that turn red and fall to the ground. I knew cows in the pasture and houses on acres of golden grasses. I didn’t know miles of brush and juniper trees and Joshua trees and Saguaro cactus. I didn’t know piles of rocks or the howls from a pack of coyotes while the moon rises over the horizon. All I could do in that three hour drive was use my imagination to conjure up a fantasy reality about where I was headed.
We met our cast — The Sisterhood Band — at a school tucked away in a desert town called Rancho Mirage. After spending some time meeting the choir, it was time to get to work. The students got themselves organized, and our band set up their equipment while we picked up our cameras and began documenting. Once the singing started, it was as if someone cracked an egg open and magic flew out of it. It was a surreal feeling to be there in that room full of talent, hopes and dreams. When the recording was over, we thanked the students, told the band we’d meet them back at our hotel and made our way back to the car.
I had been so absorbed in work that day that I had completely forgotten about where we were. When I pushed the school door open, I was struck — and absolutely shocked — by the desert. The sun was starting to set; the sky turning every color. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t even noticed it yet. My eyes scanned every remaining surface that was still being touched by light so I could take it all in. It was barren but beautiful, stretching for miles; a vast emptiness that didn’t actually feel empty at all. At some point, my eyes made their way back up above me, which is where they remained until the sky was completely dark.
The stars shine bright in Indiana, but there was something new about them that night. It felt different, or maybe I felt different. It’s as if the desert was reminding me just how superior it is, how grand it is, and how small everything else is in comparison. I stood there, an ant, a speck of dust, floating through space on a giant rock, and I was absolutely beside myself.
When we got back to the hotel, I was still riding on a high from it all. I remember lying on my bed while listening to The Eagles on Vinyl — we were staying at a swanky place called the Ace Hotel — and just feeling blown away by everything I had just experienced. It’s crazy how one day and one moment can change the trajectory of our lives forever. That’s what happened to me that day. I went into the desert, and I was never, ever the same.
It’s a desert because…. because it’s a desert. They’ll be asking us about it forever, I guess. - Rickie Lee Jones
The desert has been a lot of things to me in my many experiences since that first trip to the Coachella Valley. Each visit feels like a pilgrimage and leaves me more curious, wanting to know as much as I can about those insane landscapes and all the living things that somehow survive there.
There are over thirty deserts in the world — most of which can be found in Asia, Africa and the Americas — but since moving to Los Angeles, I have been specifically curious about those in North America. Growing up in the midwest, the image of a desert that I had in my head was what I saw in movies: giant rolling hills like waves with golden sand and a sun so hot that nothing could survive, but I’ve learned a lot about deserts since I left the Midwest.
There are four different types of deserts: subtropical, coastal, cold winter, and polar. Subtropical deserts are hot and dry year-round. Coastal deserts have cool winters and warm summers. Cold winter deserts have long and dry summers with low rainfall in the winter. Polar deserts are cold year-round. In North America, there are four major deserts — Chihuahuan, Great Basin, Sonoran and Mojave — which all happen to be located in Southwestern America and Northern Mexico. Together, they form the North American Desert.
The largest of the North American deserts is the Chihuahuan at around 200,000 square miles. It occupies the farthest parts of West Texas, southern New Mexico, the southeastern corner of Arizona, and Northern Mexico. It’s also very young, having only existed for the last 8,000 years. I was lucky enough to spend time there nearly a year ago while camping in Big Bend National Park. Driving on Texas Farm Road 170 along the Rio Grande, I remember being surprised at the geography of that desert; I wasn’t expecting it to be so mountainous.
Several mountain ranges lie within the Chihuahuan, including the Sierra Madre, Sacramento, Chisos, and Guadalupe Mountains. It’s also considered a rain shadow desert because the two main mountain ranges — the Sierra Madre Occidental on the west and the Sierra Madre Oriental on the east — block most of the moisture that would be coming from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, limiting precipitation and causing dry winds to sweep down over the other side of the mountain. It has a mostly arid climate with one rainy season in late summer, usually falling between late June and early October.
Many plants and animals thrive there, namely Yuccas, armadillos, and javelinas. It is potentially the most biologically diverse desert in the world when considering the richness of species and the amount of plants and animals that are native, as well as restricted to, a particular area. There is also a large population of people that live within the Chihuahuan. The largest city is Ciudad Juárez, with a population of almost two million, as well as other Mexican cities like Chihuahua, Saltillo and Torreón. In the United States, you’ll find the major cities of El Paso and Albuquerque, as well as many other communities like Fort Stockton, Las Cruces, and Marfa.
Left: Black Rock Desert, Nevada. Right: Black Rock City, Nevada. Burning Man. Photos by Author.
The Great Basin Desert is the largest in the United States, only slightly smaller than the Chihuahuan. It’s located mostly in Nevada and Western Utah, but reaches into parts of eastern California, as well as Oregon, and Idaho. What was once the ancient lakes Lahontan and Bonneville, this desert exists because the Sierra Nevada range in eastern California casts a large rain shadow over the area. Because of its higher altitude, it’s also the coldest of the arid deserts in North America, with cold winters that can receive a substantial amount of snow and long, dry summers. Because of the extreme elevation change between the mountains and the lower valleys, there are a wide range of plants and animals. The lower valleys — called playas because they flood periodically — are considered shadescale zones, where mountain run-off evaporates and creates saline soil, and certain areas of the desert floor harbor no life. As you go up in elevation, the saline levels in the soil drop. That’s where you’ll find sagebrush and Pinyon-Juniper communities. The taller ranges have montane communities — white fir, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pines — and islands of alpine communities with diverse low growing grasses, perennial herbs and wildflowers that live above the treeline. There can be almost a 30°F (17°C) difference between the valley floors and the mountaintops on the same day at the same time.
Indigenous tribes, such as the Ute, Shoshone, Northern Paiute, and Mono, have inhabited this region from as early as 10,000 BCE. It’s still considered one of the least inhabited deserts in North America, though cities like Reno and Carson City in Nevada are heavily populated. Additionally, every year during Burning Man — an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance — a community named Black Rock City is arises from the desert dust in the Black Rock Desert, just north of Gerlach, Nevada and about a three hour drive north-east from Reno. For ten days, it is the fourth largest city in Nevada with a population of over 80,000 people; that’s where I first encountered the magic of the Great Basin Desert.
The Sonoran Desert wraps around the northern end of the Gulf of California — from Baja California Sur through most of Baja California (except the northwest mountains and Pacific west coast). It also includes Southeastern California and Southwestern and Southern Arizona. There are several sub-regions inside the Sonoran: The Colorado Desert, Gran Desierto de Altar, Lechuguilla Desert, Tonopah Desert, Yuha Desert and Yuma Desert. The Sonoran has an arid subtropical climate. The lower elevations are warm year-round, with infrequent rainfall, and, while the uplands are also warm year-round, they receive enough rainfall to fall into a more regular bi-seasonal rainfall pattern. Because of this climate, this desert contains a variety of unique plants and animals, most notably the saguaro and organ pipe cactus. The Sonoran is the only place in the world where the saguaro cactus is considered native. It’s also the vital habitat for the only population of jaguars living within the United States.
The Sonoran Desert is home to over seventeen contemporary Native American Tribes living within California and Arizona, as well as in Mexico. The largest city in desert lines is Phoenix, Arizona, which has a population of 4.7 million. Other notable cities are Tucson and Mexicali, Baja California — both cities with a population at or just over 1 million. The Coachella Valley in California is located in the Colorado Desert section and is home to cities like Palm Springs and Palm Desert.
The hottest desert in North America is a rain shadow desert called the Mojave, located primarily in southeastern California and southern Nevada, and is named for the indigenous Mojave people. The name Mojave is shortened from the native word Hamakhaave, meaning “beside the water”. It is the smallest and driest of the North American deserts, and is considered the “high desert”, resting between 2,000 and 4,000 feet. The main thing that characterizes the Mojave is the extreme temperatures. It is not uncommon for there to be freezing temperatures in the winter, and for temperatures in summer months to rise well above 100°F (38 °C). Most of the precipitation in the Mojave is from cyclonic storms coming from the Pacific that pass through between November and April — mainly at high altitudes, such as the portion in the San Gabriel mountains. Storms that do happen at lower elevation are known to cause flash flooding. There are very few surface rivers, and two major rivers generally flow underground — the intermittent Mojave River, which begins in the San Bernardino Mountains and disappears underground in the Mojave Desert, and the Amargosa River. Natural springs are also rare, but Ash Meadows and Oasis Valley are notable.
The most well-known plant species in the Mojave are the Joshua Tree and the prickly pear, but it is home to many species of cactus and bush, as well as blue Palo Verde. Bighorn sheep, mountain lions, black-tailed jackrabbits and desert tortoises all thrive in the Mojave. There are also many species of lizards and snakes. The rocks in this area — created under shallow water — are a famous part of this desert. This area also contains many natural resources — such as silver, tungsten and iron — and was a hot spot for mining during the gold rush. Though it was sparsely populated, it has become more urbanized in recent years. The largest city in the Mojave is Las Vegas, Nevada, followed by the Lancaster-Palmdale area of Southern California, but there are many smaller towns like Lake Havasu City, Pahrump and Bullhead City.
“We are older in a world on fire, witnessing the greatest threats yet to life on earth and to wild nature.” - Doug Peacock
All of these deserts have federally protected zones that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as well as other land that has been purchased for the purpose of protection and rehabilitation — such as the Mojave Desert Land Trust which protects parts of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. In the Chihuahuan, the desert is protected in preserves like Carlsbad Caverns National Park, White Sands National Park, Big Bend National Park, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The Great Basin is protected by the Great Basin National Park and The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, as well as many other wildlife refuges. In the Sonoran, the most well-known protected areas are Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Saguaro National Park, and Reserva de la Biosfera el Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar (Pinacate National Park in Sonora, Mexico). The Mojave Desert is one of the best protected ecoregions in the United States, thanks to the California Desert Protection Act, which established the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks as well as the Mojave National Preserve.
But these deserts are always under attack. Such magnificent desert landscapes are constantly threatened by the ever-increasing human population and human development, the misuse and mismanagement of water, overgrazing by livestock, and a lack of knowledge about deserts in general and their ecological importance. In the Chihuahuan and the Sonoran, the once abundant Mexican wolf is now on the endangered list. Other endangered Sonoran animals are the American Jaguar, the lesser long-nosed bat, pygmy owl, Gila chub and Sonoran tiger salamander. There are many endangered plants in the Great Basin. Some include the Gowen and Guadalupe Cypresses; the Whitebark, Monterey and Torrey Pines; the famous Redwood and Seqouia trees; the Pariette and Nye County Fish-Hook cactus plants; as well as some species of shrimp. In the Mojave, there are many endangered, threatened or sensitive animals and plants, namely the desert bighorn sheep, the bald eagle, the California brown pelican, the Eureka Valley Evening Primrose, and many species of fish.
In 2020, during the heart of the pandemic, people flocked national parks and participated in other outdoor recreation. Parks were over-run and saw a huge rise in vandalism, as well as an excessive amount of feces and urine on trails. Discarded masks and other trash piled up while park rangers struggled to manage the huge influx of visitors and their destruction.
“An unrequited and excessive love, inhuman no doubt but painful anyhow, especially when I see my desert under attack.” - Edward Abbey
The desert is a fascinating, incredible, magical, mind-blowing place. It can be a great place to visit, and if you’re willing to deal with the extreme climate, it can also be a great place to live. But it’s important to keep in mind that these ecosystems are fragile. They weren’t meant to be over-populated or over-visited. Maintaining these ecosystems that cover one-third of our planet is crucial in the fight against climate change. The national parks in these deserts see millions of visitors each year, and the populations of the cities within — like Joshua Tree, California and Sedona, Arizona — continue to rise. The easiest way to make sure you’re not negatively impacting the desert is to follow the seven principles of Leave No Trace: plan ahead and prepare, travel and camp on durable surfaces, dispose of waste properly, leave what you find, minimize campfire impacts, respect wildlife and be considerate of others. If you’re curious how to get even more involved, there are many organizations that work to protect the desert, and I've listed some here:
Citizens for the Red Desert Defenders of Wildlife The Wilderness Society National Parks Conservation Association Mojave Desert Land Trust The Nature Conservancy
Other smaller desert regions and sub-regions not mentioned above but that are in North America include: -Great Kobuk Sand Dunes in Kobuk Valley National Park -Carcross Desert in Yukon, Canada — the smallest desert in the world -Channeled Scablands, a desert in the Columbia Basin of eastern Washington -Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho -The Red Desert in Wyoming -Owyhee Desert, in southwestern Idaho, northern Nevada, and southeastern Oregon -Y P Desert (also located within Owyhee) -The Oregon High Desert in eastern Oregon, also known as “Great Sandy Desert” -Alvord Desert (a dry lakebed) in Oregon -Forty Mile Desert, Smoke Creek Desert and Carson Desert in Nevada -Black Rock Desert, a dry lake bed in Nevada -The Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah, as well as Sevier Desert and Escalante Desert -The Colorado Plateau -The San Rafael Desert -Bisti Badlands in New Mexico -Painted Desert in Arizona
Note: There are also western arid regions of North America that are defined separately from deserts but have similar climates.
The desert is powerful and full of wonder, keeping us curious while saying nothing at all. For me, it was always easy to love the desert. It’s strange and weird and wild — all the things I claim to be. I’ve lived on the west coast for nearly ten years now, and while I love life in the city, it’s the desert that I always escape to when Los Angeles becomes too much. Every moment spent out there in the void is special and woven into the very fiber of my being. If you’ve ever stood next to a Saguaro, hid from the sun under a Juniper Tree, or just was a witness the vast emptiness of the expansive desert, then you already know the absolutely breathtaking magic that exists there — and why it’s important we advocate for it.
“In my case, it was love at first sight. This desert, all deserts. No matter where my head and feet may go, my heart and entrails stay behind, here on the clean, true, comfortable rock, under the black sun of gods forsaken country.” - Edward Abbey
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