Do you ever think you are too easily and eternally pleased with something, and that you should try harder to be dissatisfied? Maybe you just aren't raising the high jump bar high enough?
Ahh, but what a fine thing it is to be completely satisfied, time after time, year after year! When I find a spot in Arizona that isn't choked with chollas, like some places:
... I am satisfied with it -- and no questions asked. We can put up with cactus spines and goathead thorns with no problem. But damn those chollas!
And here we were, finding another interesting arroyo within walking distance of my camper. We had never walked this one before. It was pleasantly cool and was totally unused by the motor-crazed morons. What a nice surface it was for doggie paws.
I unsnapped her because she usually stays confined to the arroyo proper. And running free is so much fun for her. Then the coyotes started yipping, close. She is only 21 pounds, so I snapped her back on the leash.
The arroyos are not totally straight. They have curves that hide what is coming next. People driving up on the road have no idea what surprises can sometimes happen in otherwise calm, understated arroyos. Think of the arroyo as being the story of somebody's quiet life that can suddenly surprise you with drama:
My little dog stuck her muzzle over the edge, investigating her chances. Then she backed off. I'm glad she did, because the vertical drop was over 10 feet.
Why do I sometimes hear a little voice in my head telling me I should aim at more excitement, more novelty?
The greatest thing the desert has to offer is freedom of mobility. No matter how vast a forest is, you can feel confined in it. But desert and grasslands offer so much mobility that it has changed human history: look at the far-flung empires of the Arabs in the 600s or the Turks or Mongols in other centuries. Only the sea offers more mobility, as was proved by the Polynesians in the Pacific, the Portuguese, Ferdinand Magellan, and British sailors.
It is that mobility that makes deserts, grasslands, and oceans so grand. It isn't the red sunsets or other photo cliches, no matter how fun they can briefly be.
Perhaps freedom of movement doesn't get the praise and appreciation it deserves because other things are more photogenic.
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