Nevada Desert

As always – there is something I’ve learnt about the place and expected certain things, and as always – there is something no book ever mentioned…
I won’t repeat what I expected from Nevada – it can be read in books, articles, Internet.
What surprised me is that Nevada desert is really a desert. It is practically dead. We drove about 100 kms there and Chris spotted once a dead rat on a side of the road. I did not see it. As a matter of fact, I did not spot even a single fly. When you walk in an Australian desert (we drove from Adelaide to Lismore through Broken Hill in February 2008) there is always something happening: some animal will skip or crawl by, scavengers eat road kill, colours of the desert change, some twisters pop up here and there… Our drive in Nevada was quite uneventful in this respect. We saw some military equipment because a huge portion of the state is occupied by an air force military base and some crazy people (soldiers???) jogging in 42 degree hit.
From time to time a shop was popping up in a desert (instead of a twister), some odd pottery shop, or garden sculpture/outdoor features shop. They were huge and beautiful, well equipped and well stocked: thousands of pots of all sizes are under the open sky in a middle of a desert, or armies of garden lights of all sizes and designs… I cannot imagine who would go to a shop like this, hours of drive from any civilisation, to buy a pot or a garden light…
Also there were some odd beautiful hotels and casinos appearing in the mist of a desert like a mirage of some kind, maybe for those who cannot wait till Vegas and has an urge to start gambling right now…
What about the desert itself, I would not call memorable…
Chris would disagree with me (he finds this desert beautiful and interesting) but I believe there are much more beautiful deserts on this planet. Colours can be brighter, flora can have more variety, fauna was not present at all….

One thought occurred to me while we were driving: how Leonardo da Vinci could recreate in his mind Nevada desert? He could not possibly know about it, but the landscape in Mona Lisa is so strikingly similar to Nevada desert (apart from the shape of the mountains, maybe), especially in the mood and colour scheme. If you ever saw Mona Lisa you got an impression about Nevada desert.

Photo album http://picasaweb.google.com/Tatiana.I.Efremova/NevadaDesert