The Enduring Desert

Sanctuary of the vegetative spirit, where sun and water provide the exhaustless power of life.

Deserts of the earth are unlike one to another as are the peoples on this earth. The faces of the deserts wear a different makeup, the make of their constitutions vary according to climate and geographic situation.

Africa's Sahara is not the same as the rock and sand spaces of Tibet. The textures and ecologies of both are unlike our North American deserts. At first glance all deserts appear to be immense wastes of lifeless desolation. The vegetation does not seem worthwhile. Unless one is afoot in the desert at night, he is not aware of any wildlife, save perhaps for an occasional bird.

In the natural constitution of the universe, the deserts are as important as the mountains and the seas. Although there is not much on the desert that is useful to civilized man, nature has other animals beside man to support. To that end the desert vegetation answers her purpose.

The Arizona deserts are distinctively marked by the magnificent Saguaro. The distinguished monarch of the desert dominates a domain of strange plant life, unsurpassed anywhere on earth. What desert trees and shrubs lack in size they more than make up by their enchanting grotesque shapes and exotic qualities. All the cacti all brilliant with the flowers they bear. In spring time the Palo Verde trees flower in masses of earth bound golden cloud forms. No sight in the world of botany can match the splendor of the great displays of wild flowers on the desert floors, after the seasonal rains. Each desert seems to have a vegetal society of its own. Some vegetation does not mix or mingle in areas seemingly sacred to certain plants.

Man can learn much from the desert where struggle is the inevitable norm of the day. And yet, with all the perpetual struggle and endless adversities, everything functions in harmonious relation, determined to live and fulfil their unalterable destiny. Plants blossom and bear fruit - animals mate in their ordained seasons, perpetuate their kinds, and hand down the struggle to their descendant generations, which in their turn add a new jot of vigor and another atom of hope to the order. Man may not be pleased with himself and the present order of things. To many, life may seem a useless waste. Man cannot change his own inherited structure no more than the Saguaro can change the nature of the desert. The best mere man can do is to accept the universe as it is, adjust his attitude and attune his spirit to a chord in harmonious relation to his circumstances and environment.

That is the simple, basic way of the enduring desert.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Silhouetted saguaros dominate the desert vistas around Rio Verde, East of Scottsdale. CARLOS ELMER INSET: "Angels and Ocotillos" oil painting by TED DE GRAZIA.

LEFT: Arizona's state flower, the glorious saguaro in prime bloom, may be seen during early spring with variance according to elevation. After blooming, the fruit and seed pods, colored red to brown, remain on the stems (as seen on the opposite page). - EARL PETROFF FOLLOWING PANEL, pages 18-19 Arizona's Grand Canyon in magnificent winter grandeur. ESTHER HENDERSON BELOW: Snow topped Four Peaks, 7645 feet, at the south end of the Mazatzal Mountains, form a Christmas card background for some of the most spectacular desert panoramas in the West. Seen from the area of Fountain Hills, off Arizona State Route 87.-EARL PETROFF

The lands of the Apache people lie, for the most part, in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. The Apache Reservations are noted for woodlands, lakes, rivers and meadows rich in the flora and fauna which make the area a very special sanctuary in the natural world. -EARL PETROFF

Blue Ridge Lake. - EARL PETROFF

The lake forming Blue Ridge Reservoir is located in Sitgreaves National Forest, north of the Mogollon Rim. In an area known for its beauty and variety of attractions, Blue Ridge Lake is noted for its distinctive picturesque qualities.

FOLLOWING PANEL, pages 24-25 Aerial view of Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreational Area. - LANDIS AERIAL SURVEYS One of the nation's largest recreational developments is the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area in Utah and Arizona. It contains the Glen Canyon Dam, Rainbow Bridge, and the 186-mile-long Lake Powell. Some of the most spectacular scenery in the West is part of the nearly 2000-mile shoreline. First class facilities serve more than one million visitors to Lake Powell and the adjoining areas famed for fishing, boating and scenic beauty.

RIGHT: "Lighting The Lord's Candle" oil painting by TED DE GRAZIA The graceful splendor of Yucca elata, which adorns our desert landscape, inspired the first Spaniards to call it "The Lord's Candle" Enchanted by the form and flower of this desert beauty, artists, writers, and photographers have long found it a favored subject.

Morning sunlight touches the snow laden boughs framing northern Arizona's scenic San Francisco Peaks. - DAVID MUENCH FOLLOWING PANEL pages 28-29 Christmas morning in Oak Creek Canyon BOB BRADSHAW High key masterpiece from Arizona's high country. - ALLEN C. REED