Desert Impressions

My first impression of the high desert?  Somewhat vague. I'd just turned 9 and we were moving from Long Beach, CA to Hesperia about 100 miles inland via Cajon Pass between the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains on Route 66.  So many changes--new house, new school, new surroundings, probably more than my 9 year old brain could really comprehend at the time.  I remember brown instead of green, cold instead of warm.  Long Beach at sea level was warm and green all year around while Hesperia at 3000+ feet altitude was brown and very cold that December.

When we, my mother, younger sister, younger brother and I, arrived there was no heat in the house and the furnace would not start.  My dad was detained in Long Beach by work, so it was up to us.  Providentially there was a working fireplace and wood to burn, whether left there intentionally or scavenged from surrounding scrub and downed Joshua trees is a fact lost in the shrouded past.  We all slept in the living room that night.  The following day all complications were solved by the adult while we children explored.  Our new lives had begun.

Looking back 5 and 1/2 decades, what impressions remain?  Light from a brilliant sun on cloudless days making deep shadows where mountains and houses stood.  Endless vistas.  Playing in the desert sand.  Joshua trees, cactus, tumbleweeds.  Jack rabbits, roadrunners, horned toads...