Void

void mark william lisk (photography)

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page 4 introduction page 6 chihuahuan page 20 colorado plateau page 40 great basin page 60 mojave page 80 sonoran page 98 dedication

contents

(Cover) Jumbo Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park, California The birth canal, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

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by mark william lisk

Shape and pattern dominates the waterless landscape of the North American Desert.

There are five great North American deserts falling within the borders of the United States and Mexico. The Colorado Plateau, Chihuahuan, Sonoran, Mojave, and Great Basin. All exhibit their own strong and unique composition, each created by water and each accentuated by the lack of it.

This place is hot like hell and as bright as heaven.

Angelic light reflects off the white sand in every direction, as blinding as a blizzard on Everest, a stark contrast to the oppressive heat radiating from the brilliant wave-like dunes of decomposed gypsum.

The Chihuahuan is the largest desert in North America stretching all the way from the southwestern United States into the Central Mexican Highlands. Most of this desert lies south of the international border. On the U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern New Mexico, Texas west of the Pecos River and southeastern Arizona, south to the border.

chihuahuan

Oliver Lee State Park, New Mexico City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico

Giant rock outcropping, City of Rocks, New Mexico Earnst Tinaja Big Bend National Park, Texas

Walking Tree White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Guadalupe Mountains, Texas

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico Big Bend National Park, Texas

Hueco Tanks State Park El Paso, Texas Santa Ellena Canyon, Big Bend National Park, Texas

Bisti Badlands, New Mexico Exposed ash layer, Big Bend National Park, Texas

Illuminated by a warm fire, the smooth zoroaster granite walls define the upper edge of our camp that opens out towards the mighty Colorado River. The river travels northeast here. Its path undaunted in an attempt to reach the sea, carves into the ancient belly of the earths interior.

Advancing and retreating seas 300 to 600 million years ago laid down the thick sediments that shroud the Colorado Plateau. This immense basin ringed by high plateaus rests on a foundation of northwardtilted uplifted rock, an island province separating itself from the surrounding North American deserts hosting some of the most spectacular parks in the world.

colorado Plateau

Scrub Cedar on the alkaline plains of the Sevier Desert, Utah

The Subway, Zion National Park, Utah Aspen, Grand Stair Case, Utah

Graphic Pattens in Hakatai Canyon, Grand Canyon, Arizona Moonrise, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Angels Landing, Zion National Park, Utah Lower Calf Creek Falls, Escalante National Monument, Utah

South Overlook, Capital Reef National Park, Utah Navajo sandstone, Escalante National Monument, Utah

Sand patterns in the San Juan River, Utah Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Saddle Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona Silver Grotto, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Le Dore Canyon, Green River, Utah Toroweep Overlook, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Green River, Dinosaur National Park’s Lo Dore Canyon, Colorado

Caste, unmindful on the playa, I am of no real account in the miles of enduring sage that reaches from mountain to mountain. Range then basin, repeating like waves from a waterless sea, dramatically rise from flat arid depressions and roll across the cold desert.

The cold desert, a label pinned on the northern most reach of the American Deserts, The Great Basin, mostly lies between the Rocky Mountains to the East and the Sierra Nevada to the West with numerous lesser-known ranges in between. Many of these ranges host peaks reaching up to 13,000 feet that climb up from parched depressions that typify this classic basin and range landscape.

Great Basin

Big Jacks Creek, Owyhee Wilderness, Idaho

Jordan Craters, Owyhee Desert, Idaho Alvord Desert lake bed, Oregon

Tufa formations, Mono Lake, California Snake River cuts through basalt cliffs, Birds of Prey Area, Idaho

Mountain Mahogany on South Mountain, Owyhee Wilderness, Idaho Mud Flat Road, Owyhee Uplands scenic by way, Idaho

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah Alvord Desert playa, Oregon

Hoodoos in the Owyhee River Wilderness, Idaho Pole Creek Willderness Owyhee Canyonlands, Idaho

Pole Creek Wilderness, Owyhee Desert, Idaho

Snake River Birds of prey area, Idaho Pyramid Lake, Paiute Indian Reservation, Nevada

Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds, Oregon Alvord Lake Bed, Oregon

Clouds turn over the rain less rocky knobs that surround the arid saline valley. Face to face, the sky relents to the mocking tug of the tediously cracked earth below, briefly restocking the parched basin.

The transition from the hot Sonoran Desert to the cooler and higher Great Basin is called the Mojave Desert.

Sitting in the arid region of southeastern California and portions of Nevada, Arizona and Utah, the Mojave Desert has the lowest absolute elevation and the highest maximum temperature of, 134째.

mojave

Devils Corn Field, Death Valley National Park, California

The Grand Stands, Death Valley National Park, California

Joshua Trees in the Antelope Valley, California Devils Golf Course, Death Valley National Park, California

The Race Track, Death Valley National Park, California Icebox Canyon, Red Rocks State Park, Nevada

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada

Kelso Dunes in Mojave Preserve, California Poppy Preserve, Antelope Valley, California

Mesquite Flats, Death Valley National Park, California Cholla Garden, Joshua Tree National Park, California

Jumbo Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park, California

Hoo Doos Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California

A moist breeze, warm and salted. blows across the prickly spines of the Cholla that resides on the cobble beach along the Sea of Cortez. This area were sea meets land, produces more rain than any of the other North American deserts.

This is the hottest on average of our North American deserts. The Sonoran is an thirsty region covering southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, as well as most of Baja California and the western half of the state of Sonora, Mexico.

sonoran

Borrego Badlands, Anza Borrego State Park, California

Viscano Desert, Central Baja, Mexico McDowell Mountain Park, Arizona

Elephant Trees, Baja Mexico Olo Mountains, Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona

Cactus and shells, Sea of Cortez, Mexico Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona

Cibeque Creek, a tributary to the Salt River, Arizona Boo jam Trees near Catavina, Baja Mexico

Cobble stone shore near Agua Verde, Baja Mexico Organ Pipe Cactus, Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona

Aravipa creek preserve, Arizona Cholla Skeleton and Organ Pipe, Organ Pipe Monument, Arizona

a photo essay by mark william lisk

void There is something about the desert that not everyone appreciates. For me it is a place of contentment, a place of absolutes, were there is no middle ground. A place of truth, were the hard edges of nature are exposed in a simple straight forward ways. Water creates, destroys, and fulfills. Water is life, and the desert is a beautiful illustration of this.

Havasu Creek, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

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