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I spent some time in the, reportedly, driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. .01 precipitation per year! I loved the purity of it all, not a cacti or desert shrub in sight anywhere!
I find scraggly desert shrubs to be ugly! Purity is more beautiful to me!
I loved seeing the sandy hills sloping down to the ocean around Iquique and Arica!
The American desert is more interesting than the Australia one since it has more mountains going through to break the monotony and create beautiful canyon scenery. While other places in the world may have as good or better mountain regions, I think the US wins this one.
I think deserts are awful. At least UAE got a coastline.
The Sonoran desert does too in the Mexican state of Sonora. However like the UAE that water is extremely warm so it's humid near the coast for half the year.
Right now I'm working int he Saudi desert and I promise you, this is not the one. I really like the Arizona desert and if LA & San Diego are a desert, then that really works. I've worked in the Gobi desert of Mongolia and that is too austere and severely cold. The Peru & Chile desert by the coast intrigue me and might be the best desert area.
They're not really desert although SD comes close with only 10 inches of rainfall.
I love the desert. To visit, not to live. I love the desolate beauty.
My vote goes to the American Southwest, especially New Mexico.
One strange thing I've noticed about desert areas is that they tend to have terrible politics: i.e., Arizona, Texas, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, etc... I'm wondering, is Western Australia also a pit of right-wing religious loony tunes?
The Chihuahuan Desert is one of the more "beautiful" deserts for those who like deserts.
Personally, I love the desert and would love to live there. Trees to me are overrated. I like the open landscape and long sightlines. The sand and short shrubs are more appealing to me than lots of trees obscuring the view. The weather is also better IMO.
I guess the American SW would win, mainly because it's one of the few places where large diverse desert metros exist. But before you rag on Arizona and Texas, understand that the major cities tend to be more liberal and progressive. Not to the level of Europe or the Northeast US, but they are more left leaning than the rural areas. El Paso County (El Paso) in Texas, Clark County (Las Vegas) in Nevada, Bernalillo County (Albuquerque) in New Mexico, and Pima County (Tucson) in Arizona went blue in the last presidential election. I have heard that Maricopa County (Phoenix) in Arizona is slowly moving to the left. They are slowly transitioning as the generations change.
The only liberal cities in these places are Tuscon and Austin. There is nothing else liberal about Texas or Arizona.
The only liberal cities in these places are Tuscon and Austin. There is nothing else liberal about Texas or Arizona.
Harris County and Dallas County went for Obama in the last election. Houston also elected a lesbian mayor. San Antonio and Phoenix are slowly changing. Rick Perry is not running for another term (what a relief), and several people believe that a more liberal (Democrat) candidate has a stronger chance at winning the governor's seat. Texas is expected to turn blue at some point in the near-ish future.
Australia is nice but there doesnt seem to be any large cities in the desert.
You've got that right.
Around Alice Springs is quite beautiful; the MacDonnell ranges in particular. But its a pretty small town of around 25,000 people, so to live there you'd need to be someone who enjoyed a steady sameness to each passing day.
One strange thing I've noticed about desert areas is that they tend to have terrible politics: i.e., Arizona, Texas, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, etc... I'm wondering, is Western Australia also a pit of right-wing religious loony tunes?
Seriously, you don't want to move to Australia. "Attitude" doesn't win you any friends in this part of the world.
We seem to be lucky to have such a developed desert region with major cities.
Phoenix, ABQ, Vegas, Tucson are some of the most unique cities in the developed world with great natural scenery and very hot weather.
Love the diverse landscape of the United States. Argentina seems to be very diverse as well.
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