Say the word desert and images of sands dunes radiating heat, or cactus and other prickly plants hiding rattlesnakes and roadrunners, or camels and Bedouin camps come to mind. The one word that best fits is “dry.”
The American Southwest Desert contains four distinct deserts:
The Chihuahua Desert covers parts of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. With cool winters and scorching summers, the area receives less than 10” of rain a year. Mexican Dray Wolves still inhabit the region.
The Great Basin Desert spreads across northeast Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. With higher elevations, this is generally considered a cool desert. Found in the higher elevations are pines, of which the oldest living thing, a Bristlecone Pine, is thought to be around 5,000 years old.
The Mojave Desert sits at the intersection of southeast California, south Nevada, northwest Arizona, and touches southwest Utah. Death Valley and Lake Mead are located in this desert. One unique feature is the Joshua tree which is only found in the upper elevations of this desert.
The Sonoran Desert tucks itself into southern Arizona and California and northern Mexico. Though the hottest of the American deserts, it receives rainfall in a twice annual pattern:
- Winter storms off the Pacific, and
- The summer monsoons.
The unique plant found in the Sonoran is the Saguaro Cactus.
Have you ever lived or visited one of these deserts?
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