Desert Dreaming

At the end of winter, we set our sights on the land of hot and dry.

By Amy G. McDermott

In the last chilly weeks of winter, we dream of dry heat— of white-tailed jackrabbits and basking , orange-bellied chuckwallas. We dream of burning days and cool nights. 

 This season, our hearts are set on the high desert. It's a landscape of soaring extremes and crumbling granite — a land where the dry shrubs that creep from cracks endure the hot white heat of long days under a bright sun; then survive the frosty chill of night. Where the dry air chaps our lips, and we harbor quiet awe for the creatures that call the cold, dry beauty of this landscape home.

Born and raised in California, Amy founded Hawkmoth in 2014. She earned her master's at Columbia University, studying the evolution and conservation of coral reef fish in the tropical Indo-Pacific and is now a banana slug, in UC Santa Cruz's Science Communication Program. 

Find Amy on her website, and follow @amesydragon