Desert Ecology Field Tour, Joshua Tree Terrain, Arizona, 2002

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Desert Ecology Field Tour, Joshua Tree Terrain, Arizona, 2002 — Archive & Atlas

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Desert Ecology Field Tour, Joshua Tree Terrain, Arizona, 2002 — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 2002

AA-2026-A6D7BC

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Somewhere in the Mojave-edge desert of Arizona, two white vans have deposited a group of some thirty adults into a Joshua tree flat, where a guide in a hat is explaining something that everyone in the group is now nodding about with the solemn attention people reserve for information they will not retain past lunch. The demographic runs heavily toward retirement age, which in 2002 meant the generation that had spent its working life indoors and was now systematically visiting the outdoors on a schedule.

Field tours of this kind occupied a particular niche in early-2000s ecotourism: not quite rugged enough to be hiking, not quite comfortable enough to be a bus tour, and organized around the premise that standing in the desert and listening to an expert was a form of recreation. The Joshua trees, which had been doing fine without an audience for several thousand years, provided the backdrop without comment.

The vans' sliding doors hang open behind the group, ready for the retreat back to air conditioning that everyone is quietly looking forward to — the moment when the appreciation of nature gives way to the appreciation of a cold drink.

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