This is my first time in the desert, and it is continually challenging the ideas I once held about it. Every 50 to 100 miles, the entire landscape undergoes a radical change; it's as if a switch has been thrown and a new backdrop falls over the horizon. Different plant growth, differently shaped mountains, new colors, new worlds. We've gone from rocky to dry and flat to a forest of Joshua trees, to saguaros, to boulder piles to mesas to actual trees to canyons. Heading south to Tombstone, we're technically out of the desert, but the landscape still fits the bill in many ways. On one side of the road there are rocky, white peaks, but on the other the mountains are brown and softly rounded, with ranches and farms interspersed. Even the elevation is changing. Every other town has a different elevation: 1,000, 2,000, 3,000...our ears keep popping.
