The Mojave National Preserve

The Mojave National Preserve is a lonely triangle of land, bordered by major freeways north and south and the Colorado River to the east. It is a huge area; by their sheer weight, the numbers describing the land become meaningless: 1.4 million acres, 16 mountain ranges, 10,000 mining claims yet only 4 active mines. Geologically it is fascinating: coal-black lava flows, shimmering salt lakebeds, purple mountain ranges, layer upon layer of rocks - some that are as old as a billion years and others as young as less than a thousand.

To the first Americans who traveled through this area by foot, horse and wagon, this uncommonly beautiful country was a peculiar form of hell. Dry and desolate, it was and still is. Especially to those men and women coming from the lush forests of the east and south, the desert land was a barren expanse to be barely tolerated before arriving in the Promised Land of California.

The first time I saw this empty triangle of land, I saw a place I wanted to know. It is a place I could live in forever. To call it vast and scenic is to call the sky blue. It's a fact, but just as the blue of the sky can have many hues, "vast" is more than just a description of its size. The vastness is a palpable force, an assault on the senses.