I always thought I was an ocean/mountain person (ocean as in beachcombing etc not laying out on the sand), until I moved to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, Thanks to the beauty of this “living desert”, I’ve become a bonafide “desert rat”.

I glory in it… especially when I’m able to stand out in the middle of it, right before the sun comes up when it’s cold enough for a jacket and hopefully holding a perfect cup of coffee. All at once the birds set up a mighty chorus and the highest peak of the nearby mountains is barely lite up. Slowly and majestically the sun rises and the mountains slowly emerge from the night, having been just a shadow on the horizon to magnificent folds of colbot blue then sort of a purply rose/taupe brown with the rising sun light causing interesting shadows to appear from the folds of mountains that form the canyons and steeps.

In the foreground beams of morning sunlight pierce the trees and other vegetation, turning the dusty brown magically into shafts of gold dust.

If one is quiet enough one may actually see the hunters of the night returning with their winnings to their dens, meanwhile coveys of quails are pitter pattering in and around the bushes while mourning doves dart from tree to ground picking at the verious seeds that were blown down by the early morning breeze.

And that is what turned me from an ocean lover to a desert dweller who can also be at the Pacific in a short day trip and be on the mountain peaks in less than an hour.

The Sonoran Desert is the only place one can experience an Alpine environment and travel through all the other environments until one reaches the ocean environment.