The four sparsely populated Southwestern desert states of NEW
MEXICO, ARIZONA, UTAH and NEVADA are extraordinary,
unforgettable and unique. They stretch from Texas to California
across an elemental landscape ranging from towering monoliths of
stark red sandstone to snowcapped mountains, on a high desert
plateau that repeatedly splits open to reveal yawning canyons. The
raw power of the scenery, uninterrupted from horizon to horizon, is
overwhelming, and is complemented by the emphatic presence of
numerous Native American cultures and the palpable legacy of
America's Wild West frontier.
Among the earliest inhabitants were the Ancestral
Puebloans (the former name for whom, " Anasazi ," has
now fallen into disrepute). The remains of their cliff palaces and
cities, abandoned around seven hundred years ago, are scattered
throughout the region, but their direct descendants, the
Pueblo peoples of New Mexico and the Hopi in Arizona,
still lead much the same lifestyle, in the same general
vicinity.
Less sedentary tribes, such as the Navajo and the
Apache , are thought to have migrated into the Southwest
from the fourteenth century onwards. They adopted local
agricultural and craft techniques and appropriated vast tracts of
territory, which they in turn soon had to defend against bands of
European immigrants. The first such, in 1540, was a party of
Spanish explorers led by Coronado, who spent two years
searching for mythical El Dorado-style cities of gold. Sixty years
later, Hispanic colonists founded the province of New Mexico
, an ill-defined region that covered not only all of the Southwest
but much of modern California and Colorado; many of the Catholic
missions they established remain intact. Not until 1848 - by which
time New Mexico had spent thirty years as a neglected backwater of
the newly independent nation of Mexico - was the region forcibly
taken over by the United States . Almost immediately, large
numbers of outsiders began to pass through on their way to Gold
Rush California.
Thereafter, increasingly violent confrontations took place
between the US government and the Native Americans. The entire
Navajo population was rounded up and forcibly removed to the
barren plains of eastern New Mexico in 1864 (though they were soon
allowed to return to northeastern Arizona), and the Apache ,
under warrior chiefs Cochise and Geronimo, fought extended battles
with the US cavalry. Though the nominal intention was to open up
Indian lands to newly American settlers, few ever succeeded in
extracting a living from this harsh terrain.
One exception were the Mormons (or the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latterday Saints), whose flight from religious
persecution brought them by the late 1840s to the alkaline basin of
Utah's Great Salt Lake . Through sheer hard work, and the
cooperative management of limited water resources, they established
what amounted to an independent country, with outlying communities
all over the Southwest. Even here they met with resistance, and
until the Civil War intervened, there was a real possibility that
the US might declare war on them. They still constitute seventy
percent of Utah's population and maintain virtual control of the
state's government.
Despite their common heritage, each of the four Southwestern
states remains quite distinct. New Mexico bears the most obvious
traces of long-term settlement, the Native American pueblos of the
north coexisting alongside towns such as Santa Fe, Albuquerque and
Taos, which clearly retain their Spanish colonial identity. In
Arizona, the history of the Wild West is more conspicuous, in towns
such as Tombstone , site of the legendary shoot-out at the
OK Corral. Over a third of the state belongs to Native American
tribes, such as the Apache, Hopi and Navajo, most of whom live in
the red-rock lands of the northeast corner, notably amid the
splendor typified by the Canyon de Chelly and Monument
Valley .
The canyon country of northern Arizona - even the immense
Grand Canyon - won't prepare you for the uninhabited but
compelling landscape of southern Utah, where Zion and
Bryce canyons are just the best known of a string of
national parks and monuments. Moab , poised in the east
between majestic Canyonlands and the surreal Arches ,
has become a top destination for youthful outdoors enthusiasts.
Nevada, on the other hand, is nothing short of desolate; gamblers
are lured in the millions by the bright lights of Las Vegas
, but away from the casinos there's little to see or do.
You can count on warm sunshine anywhere in the Southwest for
nine months of the year, with incredible sunsets most evenings.
Summer is the peak tourist season, for no good reason - air
temperatures topping 100°F can make outdoor life unbearable, while
in late summer awesome thunderstorms sweep in without warning,
causing flash floods and forest fires. By October, perhaps the best
time to come, the crowds are gone and in the mountains and canyons
the leaves turn red and gold. Winter brings snow to higher
elevations - there's excellent skiing in northern Utah and
in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico - while
spring sees wild flowers bloom in otherwise barren desert. Note
that the climate varies sharply according to elevation, with
mountains often 30°F cooler than the plains.
More than almost anywhere in the US, the backcountry
wildernesses of the Southwest are ideal for (well-planned)
camping and backpacking expeditions. It's vital to be
prepared for the harshness of the desert, where even the most basic
needs can be hard to fill: always carry water, and if you venture
off the beaten track let someone know where you're going and when
you'll return.
Unless you have your own vehicle, many of the most fascinating
corners of the region are utterly inaccessible. Scheduled public
transportation runs almost exclusively between the big
cities - which are not at all where you should aim to spend your
time.