Who Lives Out Here

This country looks empty and still from the road, but it is quietly teeming, and if you drive slow with your eyes open — especially in the cool of morning and evening — you'll start to see it. Keep a watch on the roadsides and washes.

Those pig-like animals you might see trotting in a little herd are javelina — not actually pigs at all, but a desert animal all their own, with sharp tusks and poor eyesight; give them room. Coyotes trot these hills, and you'll hear them yipping at dusk. Black-tailed jackrabbits with those enormous cooling ears bolt across the road. Overhead, red-tailed hawks ride the thermals off the cliffs, and if you're lucky you'll spot the desert's real showpiece, a golden eagle. Down in the rocks live the famous ones people come hoping to glimpse: the Gila monster, a big, beaded, orange-and-black lizard, one of the only venomous lizards on earth — beautiful and slow and best admired from a distance. And yes, there are rattlesnakes; they want nothing to do with you and mostly move at night in the warm months, but it's one more good reason to watch where you put your feet and hands if you get out to explore. High on the crags, desert bighorn sheep pick their way along ledges that look impossible. It's a whole wild community out here, tougher than it looks. Drive gentle, and watch for it.