Watkins T.H. Time's Island: The California Desert

Gibbs Smith, 1989. — 100 p.The California desert is an acquired taste. Driving through it, with thoughts fixed on Mammoth's slopes or the tables of Las Vegas, one is often more attracted to the tacky gas station-fast food stops than to the bleached landscape.But anyone who has stepped away from the highways, even just to stretch and yawn, knows how quickly rapture can set in. The stench and clamor and visual confusion of the Southern California megalopolis fade; the desert silence becomes tangible, the clear sky hypnotic, the clean air intoxicating.Under such a spell, folks get protective. But because the California desert is subtle in its seduction, newly inspired nature lovers have often gone on to worry about threats to the Grand Canyon and other more postcard-perfect desertscapes.Now the California Desert's time has come, and the voices of protectors are rising up. With "Time's Island, The California Desert," T. H. Watkins puts himself in the first rank of the defenders of this relatively neglected 39,000-square-mile landscape.