Days 1-3
To say I’ve never experienced anything like the American Southwest is a gross understatement. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the breathtaking views or—more importantly—the incredible biodiversity. When we departed from Las Vegas on day one, we were able to get a little taste of the landscape as we travelled to Death Valley. We stopped at multiple roadside tourist viewpoints where we gazed across miles and miles of rolling mountainsides, and we were even able to venture out to examine the hills up close. After stopping at Artist’s Palate and Badwater Basin, Dr. Douglas professed that the destinations to come were even more incredible. I didn’t believe him at first, but I was very quickly proven wrong.
On day 2 we travelled further into California until we reached the Granite Mountains. After multiple wrong turns, we finally arrived at the biological field station where we were to reside for the next two days. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, tucked at the base of 200-300ft mountains made of pure granite stone, with no electricity and only a couple outhouses. Once we’d settled into the field station, we ascended into the mountains on foot. We took off climbing in groups of two, three, four, all aiming to reach the summit of the granite mountains. As I climbed, I was absolutely astounded by the amount of plant and animal life that were thriving among the boulders. In a place with so little soil and rainfall, I had automatically assumed the mountain to be an uninhabitable habitat. Hopping from boulder to boulder, I kept finding different specimens of beaver tail, cholla, barrel cacti, yucca, agave, lichens, and more. I didn’t see any animals first hand while climbing, but the scat littering the mountainside proved they were there.
Day 3 sent us to Granite Cove and Kelso Dunes. Exploring Granite Cove allowed us to see even more plant diversity as well as capture some great pictures of birds and lizards. It was amazing realizing that people have actually called a place like that home for centuries, what with no running water or soils fertile enough for crops. Before taking this class, I imagined most deserts looked a lot like Kelso Dunes: miles and miles of sand with few life forms. The long walk out to the highest dune, however, provided a clear image of biodiversity: patches of dry grasses and shrubs, invertebrate and reptile tracks, and mammal scat. Scaling the near-vertical face of dune was by far one of the most physically challenging situations I’ve ever faced, but the view from the top made it all worth while. We could see for miles in all directions, observing a continuation of dunes, scrublands, and towering mountains far in the distance. I’ve never experienced anything like this in Florida, where the farthest I can see is to the next stoplight.
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