Where Is the Desert Southwest?

The Warm Deserts North of Mexico

There are different ways of describing the American Southwest, but most descriptions are either too broad or too specific. It is not just a collection of states in the southwest corner of the country, nor is it just Arizona and New Mexico. The best definition of the Desert Southwest is the region that surrounds the warm deserts north of Mexico. Some geographic and cultural elements are common to all of the Desert Southwest: the influence of Spanish colonization, Mexican culture and cuisine and a relative abundance of desert plants.

Southern California, the southern tip of Nevada, the southern edge of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and the basin and range region of Texas are all a part of the large Desert Southwest region.

• 3warm deserts: the Mojave, the Sonoran and the Chihuahuan
• 134°FDeath Valley, 1913, the hottest air temperature on record
• −282 ftBadwater Basin, the lowest point in North America
• 1 milethe depth of the Grand Canyon, on the Colorado Plateau

From the Mojave to the Rio Grande

My stories, from west to east, the way the map reads.

1. The MojaveSouthern California and NevadaThe smallest and driest of the warm deserts, from the Joshua trees of the high desert down to Death Valley and out to Las Vegas.
   • The Pupfish Wars of Death Valley
   • Panamint Valley Roach Motel
   • Twenty-Seven Songs to the Trona Pinnacles
   • Four Seasons of Joshua Tree
   • Longboarding Las Vegas
   • Valley of Fire and Thorns
2. The Low Desert and the SouthlandThe Salton Sea to Los AngelesBelow sea level at the Salton Sea, up through Anza-Borrego and west to the dry river and the wildflower plains of the coast.
   • Bombay Beach: Sunrise on the Atomic Paradise
   • Death and Salvation on the Salton Sea
   • Out There in the Anza-Borrego Desert
   • Gray River in the Sun
   • Reef of Pollen on the Carrizo Plain
3. The SonoranArizona and the borderThe greenest of the warm deserts, the only home of the saguaro, cut by a border wall.
   • The Road to Quitobaquito Springs
   • Types of Cactus in the Desert Southwest
4. The Colorado PlateauUtah, Arizona and New MexicoSandstone country above the warm deserts: slot canyons, the Vermilion Cliffs, the Bisti Badlands and the old Pueblo lands.
   • Reading Paria Canyon
   • Waves of Sand in Rainbow Country
   • Mud Road to Coyote Buttes
   • Mesa to Canyon along the Colorado Plateau
   • Edge of the Bisti Badlands
   • Sand Springs and the Puzzle of the Pueblo
5. The Chihuahuan and the Rio GrandeNew Mexico and West TexasThe largest of the warm deserts, following the Rio Grande south from New Mexico toward the Big Bend.
   • Atomic Agriculture on the Rio Grande
   • Desert Southwest Sketch Journal