None other than this long brown land lays such a hold on the affections. The rainbow hills, the tender bluish mists, the luminous radiance of the spring, have the lotus charm. They trick the sense of time, so that once inhabiting there you always mean to go away without quite realizing that you have not done it.

Mary Hunter Austin

The Land of Little Rain

It’s hard to explain why you love the desert to people who think desert = wasteland. But for folks who like long brown lands, the United States is a fantastic place. We’ve got four big deserts (Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Great Basin) and all kinds of local desert landscapes, from sand dunes to badlands to ironwood forests. Best of all, much of it is public land, and we can wander across it at will.