By ‘desert’ I’m not talking about suburban Phoenix. I want to hear from the *real* desert rats. What’s life like way the heck out in the Big Empty?

37 comments

  2. Hey, the *real* Desert Rats were British soldiers from the 7th Armoured Division who spanked Rommel’s ass all the way back to Berlin during the North Africa campaign.

    Just wanted to throw that in there. I’ll leave the desert dwelling question to the more experienced among us.

  3. Living in the desert can be both peaceful and harsh. The vast open landscapes are beautiful and serene, but the climate can be extreme with scorching heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night.

  5. are you talking as in living alone in a shack? or small town?

    the ladder honestly fucking sucks so much because youre constantly teased with a entirely superior version of where you live when you visit neighboring cities that have so much more to do and have so many more people to meet.

    Most of the people my age, around 20, go straight to college which is NOT here in town and thus if you didnt go to college there really isnt any way to entertain yourself because the town has jack shit. you could go to a bar but if you havent waited the 3 years yet to be 21 then youre shit outta luck. just gotta go to work, go home, and thats kinda that.

    Fucking awful, this town. all that is with regards to the economic flow of this place is solely placed with its export of oil and the income brought by building a new hotel and convenience store at the end of every block.

    shit you not, the newest and most exciting thing we’ve gotten as people that actually live here is an addition to the park and a new gym.

    not a place to raise children, as a man who was raised here as a child.

  6. I live in a small-ish town in southeastern Arizona. It’s pretty nice out here, but there are some annoyances.

    The climate goes both ways. On the one hand, it’s nice to not deal with the gloom of constant cloudiness during winter, but the sun itself can start to get old when you get into the longer days of spring. You just get tired of the monotony of a clear, cloudless sky for days on end. When it does rain, even like a 1/4 – 1/2 inch (especially if it’s not during the summer) it’s a big deal. Everything floods out pretty easily. If we even get an inch of rain it’s enough to make travel extremely annoying. Roads are flooded out and road dips turn into either rivers or lakes for a little while until they dry out.

    There isn’t a ton to do around here which is kind of a downside. Most of the activities are outdoorsy (hiking, mountain biking, and the like) so if you don’t like that it can kind of suck.

    Another downside is cell phone service is barely passable once you leave town, and the internet here is barely passable.

    There are some more positives though. Because of where I live, I can drive 10 mins and hike for maybe another 10 or 20 and just hear the glorious sounds of nature. It’s soothing to the soul just having near silence excluding crickets and birdsong. Also due to how rural the area is there is a ton of stars at night so if you’re into stargazing it’s great for that.

  7. I think of Cousin Eddie from ‘National Lampoon’ mixed with ‘The Hills Have Eyes’.

  8. I grew up in the Mohave Desert, the northwest part of Arizona, aka the hottest part of the country behind Death Valley. 125°F summers happened a lot. It was brutal and boring

  10. One side of my family is from the Imperial Valley and I spent my summers growing up on a farm about 8 miles from town. It was hot af (110 in the shade in the summer is common) and with little do. My grandma and her husband woke up at like 4:00 am and were “active” until the late morning when it got too hot and they watched TV. Most of the TV and radio stations were in Spanish (Mexico was basically within sight). The level of heat is “should humans even live here?” hot. Despite the heat, they have multiple grow seasons which are achieved by flooding the fields in the desert. The whole valley slopes downward to the north in the Salton Sea which is basically a basin for farming chemicals across two countries, the “sea” is super polluted.

    El Centro had most amenities and was close-ish by but still sort of lagged behind Yuma (Yuma being ahead in anything would probably shock most Arizonans). Mexicali was ~10 minutes away and has a million people, lots of people cross daily in both directions. My grandmother was born in the US but lived for decades on the Mexican side because it was cheaper, commuting everyday to a low-wage job in the US. San Diego is about two hours away on the other side of the mountains.

    In some of the towns and out in the country there are “colonias” which exist all over the border region. They’re basically informal towns that many never got recognized and still lack basic services such as sewer, water, electricity, etc. I think the situation with them has been getting better but they were pretty shocking in the 90s. Some of them had migrants but many of them are people who have lived there for several generations. There’s also some (non-Hispanisized) native communities out in the desert, too, many of whom live in pretty bad conditions.

    A lot of my family has left the IV. I believe it’s a persistent poverty county and it led unemployment at the county level for years. Even in good times, unemployment can be double digits there. Most of the good jobs are with the prisons or Border Patrol, there are very lawyer, doctor, etc. jobs. Now there is some solar/tech but I don’t think they actually employ a lot of people. You meet someone in the military stationed there and they’re likely to tell you how much they hate it or are counting down the days to leave pretty quickly.

  11. You can never go hungry because there is always sand available for a sandwich.

  12. I lived in north central Az,north of Phoenix south of flag. It’s easy to die out there if you are not wary of your surroundings. Scorpions,cow-killer ants, several species of poisonous snakes,bobcats and the wolves are making a comeback. If you wander off and slip and fall into a ravine and didn’t leave a plan as to where you were going, it’s a good chance you will die there. On the good side, the desert scenery is stunning, sky is brilliant blue and the air is clean. When it snows and you crack open the pack it’s blue inside. The reservation is dotted with poverty and water is scarce. If you want isolation it’s great. Parts of western Az are unforgiving.

  13. Moved from Qatar. That s@cked. Summer up to 130F easily and all the dust and pollution. Oof. I remember Brunacini trying to recruit “but it’s a dry heat!” Yea, so’s my oven…

  14. I mean these days I live in a major metro but growing up I literally was raised in the cornfields of Indiana and recall A LOT of drug use by almost everybody, going to raves every weekend in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and a big night out was driving the 2+ hours up to Chicago to go party up in the city, overall a ton of dead weight alcoholics and drug addicts, the rural desert is the same, not fun and do not recommend imo…

  15. I’ve lived in several remote areas across New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Still do live in NV but in a city now, lol.

    I really like being out in the middle of nowhere in a desert. I’ve always been a bit of a hermit, and I own horses and all that fun stuff, so I used to do a lot of riding in the backcountry out there. Love desert hiking too.

    I also like the small-town communities that crop up in places like that, although most of the people are very different from me. But people are nice, weird, and always happy to help out. You meet some genuinely interesting characters out there, lol.

    IDK, in some ways it isn’t that different from living in remote areas anywhere (I’ve lived in places like in New England and the Southeast as well), but the scenery is a lot better IMO.

    Biggest difference is probably water. I’ve been in some areas in the desert where wells were running dry and that was a huge problem. In, say, rural Georgia, it doesn’t even cross your mind most of the time, lol. I always had a well, but I also knew a lot of people who relied on trucked-in water in the desert and that’s a whole big thing in itself, especially because a lot of them were lower income so were doing it themselves.

    What u/Tristinmathemusician said about the sunshine getting kind of monotonous is true, though. I still prefer it, but there are points where you are praying for monsoons to hit, not just because you always need the rain but just because it would be nice to have something different for a change, lol. And the flash flood risk on rural roads is a big thing; I also do search and rescue, and y’all would probably be shocked at how many recoveries we do due to flash flooding. Turn around, don’t drown!

  17. I grew up in Buckeye years ago before it become more popular and all the city stuff went up. Like I still recall the town we went fork being a town to a city and got sent home early to celebrate.

    It’s a weird 50/50. On one hand small town life was pretty calm. On the other you know everything about everyone. I frequently rode the bus to school and it could either freezing cold and dark to the point the to carried mace and a stick for protection or else is was blazing hot and I’d sweat through my shirt on the way home. Winter is always fun since you get the best of both worlds and lug a whole jacket around with you 99% of the day.

  22. I moved to the Phoenix area from Michigan a few years ago and didn’t enjoy living there. I found it too hot like 7 months out of the year, all the sun was nice at first but then it got to a point when I was wishing for a cloud. Not to mention there isn’t like any water out there so if you get lost, RIP. I had to move back to Michigan.

    It’s a awesome place to visit, but I didn’t enjoy living there.

  23. It is AH-MAZ-ING if you like the outdoors and space. I wouldn’t recommend it to a personality type that thrives in a bustling city like NYC. If you don’t like the outdoors and prefer the convenience of closely spaced cities like that of the northeast, you might be bored.

    I’ve lived in five climate regions in this country, and have been to 42 states. The southwest is my favorite area, but I’m a geologist, so a bit biased. 🙂 If I could, and if it made long term sense, I’d move to either Arizona or Montana. There are parks everywhere in the SW: Zion, Arches, Mesa verde, canyon lands, Saguaro, Lake Havasu, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad, White Sands. Canyon de Chelly is my absolute favorite place in the entire country. Great skiing, stargazing, water skiing, and hiking are also all within driving distance. Mexico is great for an affordable vacation. Vegas, Havasu, Colorado and Tahoe are popular for vacation too. And the vistas of MT, WY, and ID are also close by.

    Food is incredible. I’m in the northeast now, which is where I grew up. Now I judge tacos based on, “Do they taste like Tucson?” I’ve only found one place here that does, and I’m in a diverse, densely populated region. Sushi is the only food that’s not at its best in the southwest.

    Downsides are wildlife and flooding. There are poisonous snakes, scorpions, and mountain lions. I would be worried about leaving my dog in the yard alone without first walking it to check for snakes. One of my friends grew up in a house with a scorpion infestation, but they weren’t the poisonous kind, so they just put up with it and would carry black lights if they had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and that was in a subdivision in Gilbert I’d call a wealthy neighborhood, absolutely not the sticks. When I lived in Tucson, Sabino Canyon was regularly closed due to too many lions being spotted in the area. When the monsoons come in summer, you literally can’t drive. Roads become rivers. The air is very dry, meaning even if you are young you can look far older than you actually are. All that lack moisture leaves your skin wrinkles popping. By contrast, living in the southeast means you look ten years younger. I’d take the heat of the SW over the heat of the SE any day. You need to shower 2x a day in Nola during the summer. Even the shade has so much moisture you feel like your lungs are filled with water. In the SW, shade can mean a 15-20 degree temperature drop. If you like keeping a garden, that’s also tough in the SW. The soil and climate turn off many plants.

    But it’s generally gorgeous the entire year. Sunsets are jaw dropping. The summer lightning storms are like a light show just for you. No matter what direction you drive, beauty is in store for you. And Tucson protects dark skies because of the astronomy research that happens there. So if you’re a space buff, you’re in for night skies packed with stars. I did not like Phoenix. Everything looks the same. Tucson, Flagstaff, and Santa Fe have far more eclectic character and variety. What really surprised me when I moved there in 2001 was how nearly every home came with central air. That’s not normal where I grew up!! In Tucson, the air is so dry you don’t even need AC. You can cool the whole house just fine with a swamp cooler. My electric bill was the cheapest in the SW and the most outrageous in the SE and NE. All my friends who grew up there had a pool, which is also not normal where I’m from. Nobody would swim in summer though; the pool would feel like a hot tub. It’s so funny that here in the NE many folks still have to heat their pools even in summer.

    One more upside: no turbulence when flying. The difference between the uneventful soft landing and takeoff in the southwest (dry air), versus the bumpy southeast (humid air) is stark.

  25. I’m in a “semi arrid region” on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert sound carry’s so much further it can creep you out. In the Summer it’s like living in an oven during the day even the wind is hot. At night though it’s up to 30F degrees cooler and even then it’s still in the 80F range. People not from here usually complain about how ugly it is here the grass is brown and everything else has thorns then they get to see the sunrise or the sunset turn the entire sky gold and red feel the change that comes over the place as the animals come out for the few cooler daylight hours. There’s been a ton of times I’ve been on the edge of a mesquite overgrown pasture where nothing is higher that three feet and all of a sudden seen a mule deer or coyote seemingly pop up out of nowhere.
    The wind is hot the insects all bite and sting the plants all have thorns and some are poisonous. The animals are thin constantly scavenging for water and what green plant life they can find. The winter on the other hand is bitter bitter cold that same wind that felt like it came from an oven is now a sharp biting freezing wind that cuts through you no matter how many layers you wear. I’ve been up north in the winter when the temperatures were well below freezing with snow and I’ll still say that nothing hurts like cold desert wind at only near freezing temperatures.

  26. Arid climates can be nice. The heat feels less intense than in humid climates. Also shade actually feels like shade, it’s cooler underneath a tree. But you gotta watch out for sunburns and whatnot. You might not realize you’re getting a lot of sun until it’s too late.

    The vistas are pretty great too. When you are in dense foliage it blocks your view. I got really used to having a wide open view, so going someplace with a lot of trees can feel a bit claustrophobic.

    Days can be quite hot, and nights quite cold. So being prepared for temperature extremes is a must.

    Also deserts are prone to flash flooding. You get used to not having a lot of rainfall, but when we do get a lot you have to watch out for flooding. It can come pretty fast too. The plant life is kind of ugly up close. But there’s a certain beauty to it still. I live in Utah, and in the South we have the red rocks. Just very unique looking! It can be very beautiful.

    Also, since I live within a reasonable driving distance to Las Vegas, that place is in the middle of the desert. Nothing out there. Why people decided to build a major city there, I’ll never understand.

    Anyway, yeah, I enjoy it. There’s definitely a charm about the desert.

  27. Not bad! I was born there, you meet LOADS of… interesting people you might not encounter in, say, the Midwest (I’m a California transplant to Chicago). They look the same, but talk different. “Fronchroom” vs. “livingroom” were big adjustments. People were generally more chill out west compared to here, maybe cuz we didn’t have to deal with shitty winters and the subsequent shitty roads.

    Gotta watch out for black widows though, if you don’t fuck with them they won’t fuck with you.

  28. I grew up in a satellite town of Phoenix (desert on all sides). Close to Phoenix like there, you get a lot of ranches, little housing developments in the middle of desert, and generally spread-out areas where everyone wants to have a couple acres to themselves but still be relatively close to the city. Further out it gets stranger. Black Canyon City is half an hour north of the Phoenix outskirts, right on the interstate, and it’s already a big change in scenery, with a lot less built-up developments and a lot more piecemeal trailers, houses, and standalone businesses that range from utilitarian/industrial to run-down to a few that are custom and imo superior atmosphere to anything found in Phoenix.

    The desert itself never felt very welcoming to me, even as a kid running around and exploring it. The trees are often too small to climb and too scraggly to provide enough shade. The ground is full of venomous critter nests, detached cacti bits covered in spines, etc. It’s scenic, but after a while, you get tired of seeing so much brown everywhere. I grew up in the desert but now living on the east coast, I feel that the forested northern part of the state, where I went to college, is more of a “home” to me.

    Arizona is one of the most urbanized states, because it’s hard to live way out in the desert, but if you go out there… It’s strange. Most of the true small towns in the HOT desert part of the state are mining towns or Native American settlements on reservations. The former are boring and lame but not bad, basically just providing basic groceries, education, utilities etc for the mine workers and their families. If the mines close, these usually become ghost towns (uncommon in the modern day of long-term investment). I’ve mostly just been to Globe, and I got the impression that most people didn’t plan to stay there longer than necessary. But there is a type of person who likes it out there and settles down permanently, usually someone who wants to be left well alone. The latter type of town, on reservation land, is usually an unfortunately destitute place.

  30. Tiny Southeastern townie here.

    Quiet.
    Star gazing is top quality. There is a reason one of the world’s largest binocular telescopes sits on our mountain.
    Our mountain by the way, contains almost all the zones, so driving up to the top is like driving from Mexico to Canada. You go from desert scrub and prickly pear to Evergreens and raspberry bushes in forty-five minutes.

    Scorching hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter. In spring and Autumn the saying is “Hypothermia in the morning, heat stroke in the afternoon”

    Rock hounding is almost too easy. Arizona is one of the best places to go for gem and mineral hunting. I can collect pounds and pounds of semi-precious stones just a 15 minute drive from my house.

    Boring, you have to drive for literally hours to get anywhere.

    Scorpions are not a big deal.

    The Killer Bee saturation is nearly 100% for wild honey bee hives apparently. So….that sucks.
    If you’re not into the great outdoors then there is not much to do.

  31. In the desert you can’t remember your name cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain.

  32. There’s a lot of difference between living in the high desert vs the low desert. What they have in common is the lack of water, but otherwise they’re pretty different experiences.

    I like life in the high desert, but it can be relentlessly cold there in the winter. Unlike the low desert, this cuts down on the number of pest insects and snakes because few are hardy enough to survive the climate. That part is nice.

    The water quality you get to live with depends quite a lot on where you live. Some places like Madrid, NM have seriously odd smelling/tasting water. Is it potable? Yes. Would you WANT to drink that water? It smells like sulfur in that “rotten eggs” sort of way. Your other option is to buy large quantities of bottled water.

  33. You mostly get used to the heat but you never get used to getting into a car that’s over 200* F. Can’t touch your steering wheel or seat belt buckles for minutes…just kinda wait

  34. If you’re raising little kids you let them be nocturnal in the Summer since you don’t really want them to be outside from about 9-10am to sundown. Night time playing outside when you don’t need sunscreen and it’s down in the 90s or 80s (on mild days) is a necessity.

    The car has to be parked in the shade at all times or the seats and buckles burn you. You MUST have water with you to keep cool during the day- especially picking up from school.

    Real desert people wear light clothing covering to ankles and wrists because it keeps you cooler and shields you from the sun. You can tell who isn’t from there by their tanktops and sunburns

  36. I grew up in the Mojave Desert in CA. It’s wide open space. Beautiful but boring.

  37. I live in a small town. I am surrounded by desert. It’s quieter. The air quality sucks. Traffic always sucks on 3-day weekends.

    Other than that, it’s cool. I love watching the sunsets.

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