Anyone for deserts?

I don’t like it when it’s too hot. I hated my sweltering apartment in L.A. It’s so much nicer up here in the Great Green Pacific Northwest!

I lived in the Antelope Valley during my teens and early-20s. The Antelope Valley is in Northern L.A. County/Southern Kern County on the extreme western edge of the Mojave Desert. Lancaster, Palmdale, Edwards Air Force Base. Those were my stomping grounds. Drive east for an hour or so, and you’ll get to Victorville, Barstow, Daggett. Keep driving through Baker (gateway to Death Valley) and you’ll wind up in Las Vegas. The old coach road is still there, between Barstow and Las Vegas. I’ve always wanted to drive it. (You need 4WD to do it.)

I like evergreen trees, and summers that only get into the mid-80s. Still, there’s something to be said for deserts.

Hot in the summer? Yes. ‘But it’s a dry heat!’ (<=== Obligatory remark.) Really, the heat in the desert is of a different quality than the heat in L.A. It’s most certainly different from the heat in New Orleans! I met this girl in New Orleans, and she came out to visit me in L.A. We drove up to the AV, since she’d never been in a desert. We didn’t have a/c, but the wind blowing through the open windows was enough. She asked how hot it was, and I said, ‘Oh, about 105.’ She thought it felt like 90. It’s really not so bad, once you get used to it. And I had my (first) '66 MGB and a motorcycle. Lots of breeze! (Not to mention the ‘breezes’ that are there naturally!)

And the visibility is awesome. One thing about not having trees is that you can see farther. The air was clean enough that you could see the surrounding mountains quite clearly. I learned to fly in the desert, and one of my favourite things would be to go up on a see-forever morning and fly out to the western edge of the valley. From a few thousand feet up, I felt I was King of All I Serveyed. Other times I would drive my old Willys up into the foothills and look out over the Valley. What a view! And skiing in Wrightwood, I liked to go to the tiny, retro-like, Snow Summit. There I was standing in the snow, and there to the north was the great yellow vista of the desert!

I flew helicopters there, too. Man, was that fun! I was about 400 feet off the deck. They bright yellow sand stretched all around, and the brilliant blue sky was like an inverted bowl over my head.

When you fly over the desert, you can see where the water goes.

Dad worked for the FAA on a rotating shift. I’d often take him dinner at the airport. Sometimes I’d wander around the virtually deserted airport in the dark, or just stand and listen to the silence. Very peaceful, the desert is at night. Or there was the time when I was on a student film crew. I got to the location – way out in the middle of nowhere – on a freezing December morning. No one else was there. I stood, as the sun rose, listening to the coyotes singing.

Many people hate the drive to Las Vegas. I love it. People who say it’s boring just aren’t looking. There’s yellow sand, and grey rocks. There’s also red rocks, and orange rocks, and rocks of many different colours. There’s the sage green of the sage, and the tan of the tumbleweeds. White and yellow and orange flowers bloom in the Spring. (People flock to the the Antelope Valley every year to watch the poppies bloom like an orange explosion of the the hills and fields.) There’s the blue sky, and sometimes there are white clouds. The desert is loaded with colour!

And textures. The desert floor may be soft or hard. There can be drifts of sand, or stretches of gravel. Look at those dark, craggy mountains slowly eroding! The rock is hard, dark and rough. Around their bases they have mounds of softer, lighter sand. I often wonder about these mountains and outcroppings. Some of them stand alone. Were these once volcanos that never made it to the surface to erupt, finally reaching daylight through slow erosion? Or are they massive chunks of stone that have been thrust up by seismic action? What did this place look like thousands of years ago, when it was a shallow sea? When the sea was half-evaporated? Three-quarters evaporated?

Yes, the desert is hot. The wind blows and dries your sweat and cools you off a little. The sand blows and sometimes gets in your eyes. But on a cool, quiet morning on a see-forever day, a desert is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Oh – I guess this is a poll. Do you like deserts?

Until I moved to Phoenix, and I’d say about two years after, I most definitely did NOT like deserts. But it’s true - you do get used to it, and now I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I love Phoenix and I even like the heat. Granted, I’m not a big out doors type, so the summer heat doesn’t have a negative impact on my life.

I spent a week in Tucson about 6 years ago. I decided then and there I hated deserts. Then again, I’m a sailor - I want to be by large bodies of water. It was interesting to see the different plant life and I got a laugh at the obvious transplants who tried to force lawns. But I hated the dry, dusty feel. Give me the Chesapeake Bay any day.

I dunno. I’ve never actually been to a desert. I hate, hate, hate hot weather though, so I’m gonna guess, no, I don’t like them.

In the winter, I love deserts. In the summer, I love getting away from deserts.

I have never seen a desert, except from a plane traveling between Toronto and San Franciscio.

Late in the spring or early in the summer, Toronto sometimes gets a perfect day where the temperature is high–30C–but the humidity is low. On those days, people go outside and marvel at the weather, so different from the usual humid, smoggy heat that we get from the Gulf of Mexico.

I love those dry, warm days, and would very much like to experience a desert.

Ah, deserts! I’ll be visiting Palm Desert again this August, and I’m sooooo looking forward to it! Joshua Tree is a delight at that time of year (towards evening, of course)!

I greatly enjoy visiting deserts.

Deserts are kind of neat to VISIT. Given a choice, though, I would choose to live someplace with trees.

Never been to a desert, so I can’t say.
But going by what normally in nature captures my eye, I would have to say I would prefer mountains and trees over the desert.

Heh. Born in Mojave and raised in Rosamond, here. Wouldn’t admit that unless it couldn’t be proved against me. I have also moved where there are more trees and less heat, but I’m still in what is considered high desert (Western Colorado). People here complain when it gets up to 105. Wimps. However, I would not choose to live anywhere that has high humidity. It is just plain nasty in the summer. Also, I definitely do not miss the #*!$% wind in AV. I have been back enough times to be sure! All I miss are In-N-Out burger and the Rusten House (and my youngest, she’s still there in Antelope Acres :eek: )

It’s great for learning crosswind landings, though! :wink: Mojave is in the venturi caused by the mountains, though. I remember 100-knot winds blowing through there! As I recall, it never got more than 50 knots or so out on Ave. L.

I think I need my house here, and another one around Ave. L. and 20th St. W. That way I can have the best of both worlds. Oh, and a condo in Santa Monica would be nice, too. Ah, those were the days! Bouncing around in my Willys, with my boonie hat keeping the sun off of my head.

I don’t like being there in August, though. Too humid for the swamp coolers to do their jobs.

I love watching the sun rise after dancing all night in the desert. Pure bliss.

And Coachella is in the desert.

The desert rocks.

Before I moved here 9 years ago, I’d never seen the desert. I pictured where I was going to be miles of hard, brown land with cracks running everywhere and no plants. Of course, that wasn’t the case at all. It’s a living desert with lots of green stuff and animals. It is rather pretty and the sunsets are the best.
Can’t say that I’ve gotten used to the heat, although low humidity is MUCH better than high. The heat still overwhelms me if I have to be out in it, so I just don’t go outside during the day in the summer any more than I have to.
All in all, living in the desert’s more good than bad. It’s been in the 80’s for the past week, while my best friend in Michigan is still reporting snowstorms and school closures.

Before I lived here, I lived in the mountains of western NC. Now THAT was gorgeous and I wish I could live there again.

I’ve never been to the desert, I am certain that I’d love it, though. Of course, when you consider where I work, that’s probably not all that surprising.

Johnny, you just mentioned one of my favoritest places on dis here Earth! If you get off the 14 at Palmdale and head East into the desert, all the way until Palmdale ends (I believe it’s 240th street), and then head North for about a mile and a half, you’ll come to an abandoned house/restaurant (it’s got a blank tall sign out front, beside the highway) that just looks goddamned cool. I’ve spent hours driving around, criss-crossing from road to road, finding beautiful shit out there.

Any of these look familiar?

Well, where I have lived since 1950 the highest official temperature that I know of is 121 F and the lowest -4 F. Normally summers run 110-115 F and winters down to 20-25 at night. We don’t have as much wind here as in the Antelope Valley which is just to the south of us. When our wind blows it can really blow but we also have day after day with little wind at all.

There are a few adjustments. After a little while you get good at parking your car so that the sun doesn’t shine on the front seats. That’s because if it does you have to sit real gingerly for a while so you don’t burn some sensitive areas. I walk 9 holes of golf two or three times a week and in the summer I take it real easy and carry lots of water.

All things considered I’d rather be here than elsewhere. Sure it’s hot but I don’t have to shovel it. Nor does my car skid on it and go into a ditch or another car. And in winter it gets cold, but certainly not as cold as northwest Iowa. And most of the time the surroundings are beautiful - except on rare occasions when you can’t see them for the blowing sand.

Ave. S, isn’t it? Then east to Sierra Highway, and follow it out to 240th St. E. Right? Say, do you know that old foundation from the '20s with the rock chimney still standing? Some sort of early commune, I think.

Heh. It all looks familiar. But darned if I can place them exactly. The last two look like Sierra Highway, heading North.

And parking the nose into the wind, or else holding onto the door handle when you open it! :wink:

Lemme tell you about when I lived there, and got on my Yamaha 250 Enduro with the vinyl seat when I was wearing cut-offs… :eek:

Any of these look familiar?
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If you’re trying to make me homesick, dude, it’s not working. And BTW, that last pic is looking north on Sierra Hwy between Lancaster and Rosamond. I recognize “R” hill and Silver Queen.