# Where Is The Best Desert? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2013, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717 "2013-10-20T10:15:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/21 "2013-10-21T07:00:25Z")
The meth labs of Barstow, California. Seeing an early morning explosion in all its glory makes one realize that he is truly in God’s country. And Death Valley. Second only to Utah as the finest desert scenery in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/22 "2013-10-21T08:04:45Z")
As a Californian I have familiarity with Joshua Tree and Death Valley. Been to Utah, NM and Nevada deserts. Haven’t been to the Eastern Oregon side, my Oregon kin were all on the wet side of the state. I love Joshua Tree quite a bit but almost all of it is wonderful in one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/23 "2013-10-21T09:07:03Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Antarctica, because it has penguins. And, it’s one of the driest places on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/24 "2013-10-21T09:41:58Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Antarctica, because it has penguins. Yes I struggle a bit to accept Antarctica is a desert but there is no precipitation so ok. Personally I’d like to explore the Dry Valleys. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/25 "2013-10-21T10:38:29Z")
The drive down the Baja peninsula, from San Diego / Tijuana down to La Paz and Todos Santos and Cabo San Lucas and Cabo Pulmo has spectacular desert scenery. I’ve done it twice in the last 15 years. I recommend driving down in the winter months and then seeing the gray whales in the lagoons of central Baja. The whales approach close enough that you can touch them. I wasn’t quite that close, but almost there - within a few inches of one; definitely less than a foot away from my outstretched hand. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/26 "2013-10-21T10:50:56Z")
The Namib, the world’s oldest desert - coastal fog, desert elephants, Skeleton Coast, Fish River Canyon, world’s tallest active dunes…it really is an impressive place. Oh, and **Ethilrist** , it has [penguins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Penguin) 🙂 > [@Johanna](#): > > I’m kind of fascinated by the tepui (flat-topped mountains) of South America, which are the remnants of high plateau caprock after most of the plateau got eroded away. If you’re ever interested in an easier visit to something similar, (not quite identical, but people I know who’ve been to both always remark on the similarities,) [Table Mountain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_Mountain) is situated in Cape Town and has a cable car to the top 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/27 "2013-10-21T16:09:36Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Um… it’s in the depths of my memory. Original source might have been National Geographic? > Google today gives me a quote from [LA Times](http://articles.latimes.com/1990-12-22/local/me-5948_1_sahara-desert-sahara-club-santa-monica), but it’s not sourced. I’ll try to find something better. > > Meanwhile, [this article](http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/22/science/sci-sahara22) says global warming might make the Sahara a better place for people. > > Edit- or were you asking about the Southwest? That’s all man made, it was an early version of the Dust Bowl. Your cites don’t do a very good job of verifying your assertions about the Sahara Desert. Your first ‘cite’ is awfully sparse on facts. “The Sahara Club, a group of plant-crushing motorcycle enthusiasts is aptly named. Large portions of the Sahara desert and other eroded wastelands of North Africa are man-made. In historical (that is, Roman Empire) times, many now ugly and hostile areas of North Africa were verdant and friendly. They became deserts after men cut down all of the trees and their goats nibbled all of the smaller plants out of existence.” And you second ‘cite’ doesn’t back up your claim, _ **at all** _. “The researchers believe that the eastern Sahara, which includes parts of Egypt, Sudan, Libya and Chad, began to dry out around 5300 BC, and that most of the tribes had retreated eastward to the Nile or southward to northern Sudan by 3500 BC.” And I think that this, “… the Southwest? That’s _ **all man made** _, it was an early version of the Dust Bowl.” is _ **way** _ too broad of a statement. Got a cite for _ **that** _ little jewel? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/28 "2013-10-21T18:07:12Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Antarctica, because it has penguins. Huh. You’d think that the polar bears would eat most of them. 😃 > [@MrDibble](#): > > The Namib, the world’s oldest desert - coastal fog, desert elephants, Skeleton Coast, Fish River Canyon, world’s tallest active dunes…it really is an impressive place. My favorite part is the [Welwitschia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welwitschia). Not much to look at, but a very cool idea. I live in a desert. I think most people expect sand and cacti, but there’s none of that here. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717/29 "2013-10-21T19:07:28Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > And Death Valley. Second only to Utah as the finest desert scenery in the United States. Crap, forgot about Death Valley. That probably is the coolest (hottest) desert I’ve been to. > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Antarctica, because it has penguins. The Atacama desert has Humboldt Penguins! > [@Johanna](#): > > I’m kind of fascinated by the tepui (flat-topped mountains) of South America, which are the remnants of high plateau caprock after most of the plateau got eroded away. Their steep, practically vertical sides and flat tops make them pretty weird in terms of geomorphology, and Angel Falls is such a high drop that the water all vaporizes before it reaches the ground. Weirder still is all the unique ecozones up on top with all kinds of species not found anywhere else (which is why Arthur Conan Doyle set _The Lost World_ there). Weirdest of all is how they’re paradoxically called “wet desert” because soil nutrients are constantly washed off by all the rain they get up there. I guess they don’t count as _real_ desert because of all the rain, but I just think that the phrase “wet desert” is nice and weird. I’ve been to Angel Falls, and that’s the last place I’d think of as a desert. I mean. Downtown L.A. is a grocery store desert, but not what I’d think of as no water desert. [QUOTE=MrDibble] The Namib, the world’s oldest desert - coastal fog, desert elephants, Skeleton Coast, Fish River Canyon, world’s tallest active dunes…it really is an impressive place. [/QUOTE] Forgot about the Namib. Super spectacular. [Sossusvlei](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sossusvlei), is unworldly. Yeah, J-Lo shot the unworldy shitty move The Celll there. Spectacular sand dunes, but Fish Canyon was a bit meh (we were there at dusk). And I guess seriously, my favorite desert has to be Black Rock Desert, because of that Burning Man thing. It’s also spectacular in it’s own right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-best-desert/671717.md?page=1)