What is the most attractive North American desert?

Fatty that I am, I read “dessert” and thought “strawberry shortcake” or “lemon meringue pie”.

*slobber*

White Sands

The Mojave is ugly and mostly desolate, how is it winning? The Sonoran is a beautiful vibrant desert.

The Great Sand Dunes park is southern Colorado. A mini- desert surrounded by mountains - and legal weed

I like the Mojave mainly because of Death Valley r3

I like the Joshua trees as well.

Baked Alaska

I wish the person who picked Great Basin would elaborate. It's the North American desert I'm least familiar with.

Can anyone shed light on the Great Basin? I plan to go to Nevada next summer and drive around the state.

I don't know which one is the best, but the desert in between LA and Vegas has to be the most boring worst!

That would be the Mojave, which is currently winning in the poll r9!

R10, I do like the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave, but that's about the only scenic area I'm familiar with in that desert.

The Monument Valley near the Four Corners area has the most beautiful desert, IMO. Or whichever desert has scenery like below.

r8 Lehman Caves (inside Great Basin NP) is worth a visit.

Thanks r12!

R1 I was gonna say the original picture kind looks like meringue like R6 suggested.

New Mexico has beautiful desert scenery

Sand, dirt, rocks, more rocks, more dirt, more sand. And those stupid green prickly things. Deserts are fuckin ugly. A sunrise or sunset happens on a trillion better landscapes.

Disagree (obviously), r16. There is something special about a desert sunset.

Agree, r15. New Mexico is one of my favorite states for its scenery.

Alex

Palm

Another vote here for New Mexico. I loved driving through the state on my way back to California. Very scenic high desert areas, and the skies were also beautiful.

Enchanted Mesa on Acoma Pueblo west of Albuquerque

While the Chihuahuan Desert is generally unattractive, White Sands is one of my favorite places in the US

HANDS DOWN, the sonoran

Dante's View in Death Valley is spectacular. Photographs can't really capture the scale of the expanse below.

r23, more like HANDS UP. Those saguaros look like someone giving me the finger.

Death Valley.

Well this is more of a slot canyon in the desert but it's amazing to walk through. The sunlight reflects off the stone creating color that just don't even seem real. A photographers paradise.

I think that's part of the Colorado Plateau r27

Anza Borrego, CA.

Apple Pie. There's nothing more American than that!

I don’t know, but someone needs to talk to James Charles about what is proper desert attire.

Shiprock on the Colorado Plateau

I don't know why they call it a desert, but the Arizona Sonoran desert is very lush with plant life. I grew up surrounded by it.

I think the Sonoran is the wettest North American desert r33, but the Chihuahuan has the greatest number of species ... I could be pulling this from my ass and am too lazy to Google. But the Chihuahuan is the largest, so I guess it makes sense

[quote] What is the most attractive North American desert?

My snatch?

Did someone say DESSERT?

The one filled with sprawling cities that were invented because of air conditioning and largely grew as self-centered lunatics wanted to go somewhere to runaway from their problems and fry their brain cells in the process.

That would be the Sonoran and Mojave, r37

The Great Basin has its own unique beauty

Some of these landscapes are beautiful, but I wouldn't trade it for the scenery of the PNW.

Death Valley is 150 feet below sea level and has had the record for the hottest place on earth. Let that sink in for a while.

A record 134F. But it's a dry heat.

Chrissy has her own micro-climate.

The Colorado Plateau has its moments:

The Mojave is nasty!

the channeled scablands, Washington State.

With the mention of New Mexico desert I wanted to call attention to what is not necessarily the most attractive, but certainly one of the most transcendent desert experiences one can have interacting there. Artist Walter De Maria created a work in the desert at an undisclosed location in NM where in a mile by kilometer radius 400 polished stainless steel spikes in the ground have been laid out in a perfect grid. It is administered by the DIA Foundation and you drive to their office and leave your own vehicle and then are transported to the artwork. There is a cabin there that you’re dropped off at and you spend the night and a 24 hour period to observe the desert and artwork as the light changes throughout the day.

The cabin sleeps maybe 8-10 people and you can be there with strangers, but the day I booked I was all alone, which added an intensity to the experience. They provide a lovely set of meals that are left for you as well, and technically you’re not supposed to use any technology while you’re there. During certain seasons of the year there is a high frequency of lighting as the name implies, and those reservations always go first and are usually full up. It’s truly a magical experience, sometimes the spike dissolve completely into the landscape and are invisible, other times, especially at sunrise and sunset, they may reflect the colors of the sky and other times parts may be invisible while others prominent. I highly recommend experiencing it.

Where the days are longer

The nights are stronger

Than moonshine

You're gonna go, I know

'Cause the free wind is blowin' through your hair

And the days surround your daylight there

Seasons crying no despair

Alligator lizards in the air, in the air

Thank you for sharing, r46.

(I can't wait until COVID is under control so I can start exploring again.)

R48 Maybe someday soon, as it’s been literally decades in announcing an opening date, we will be able to see James Turrell’s Roden Crator in the Arizona Painted Desert. It should be quite magnificent as it’s a light artwork in a hollowed out volcano. The other great Earth Work in a desert is Michael Heizer’s City in Nevada. And the Spiral Jetty, also by De Maria, in the Great Salt Lake may classify as a desert setting.

r49 both Nevada and Utah are on my "next road trip" list. I haven't explored either and I'm quite looking forward to it