Desert diversity

I love the desert. From the dry heat to cool nights to flash floods, there is a mystery about the desert to me that causes me to be filled with wonder at it. Having never lived in the desert, there is an unfamiliarity to it that seems to keep me slightly on edge when I am out in it.

Parts of the Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States at first glance sometimes seems to be nothing but endless stretches of uniformity in its plant life and topography. It can have a feeling of harshness, making it hard to imagine how the Native Americans managed to live in it.

But when you get out in it o...