View from Carlsbad Caverns National Park, facing the Guadalupe Mountain range.

Life in the desert is patient.  This may be your final, succinct observation if you linger long enough in the Chihuahuan Desert of Southern New Mexico.  Stay even longer, and the seemingly endless expanse of earth and sky can, in a very unique and mysterious way, be intensely comforting to body and soul - the unapproachable becomes approachable, the forbidding landscape becomes a land of enchantment.

While most visitors to Carlsbad Caverns National Park come only to see those famous underground caves, others have discovered a treasure every bit as awe-inspiring as the crystallized formations beneath this ancient Permian Reef in the Guadalupe Mountains.  This is no treasure of pirates tales - glittering doubloons and pieces of eight - but rather one that slowly, patiently reveals itself before sharp eyes and quiet reflection.  The Caverns are impressive, to be sure.  They may be the most impressive caverns in the United States.  But the Chihuahuan desert above can be every bit as impressive - not in an immediate overwhelming of the senses with the density, the lushness, the sheer abundance of, say, an equatorial rainforest, but rather in a kind of pure, overpowering solitude, in the meditative magnitude of earth and sky slowly, effortlessly permeating into your being.

Pause long enough, let your imagination roam over the landscape, and the subdued energy of this place may remind you of a movement from some great concerto - perhaps the adagio from the Concierto de Aranjuez - pulsating around you, quietly, unobtrusively at first, then all at once overpowering in force and intensity.  You'll recognize it in the falcon circling in the thermals overhead, lazily, almost like a kite in the sky, its sharp profile polished gold by the brilliant sunlight, until it suddenly arcs its wings and drops, hurtling earthward like a meteor.  You'll catch a glimpse of it in the day-old skipper butterfly pausing at the century-old yucca, pausing only long enough to fan its wings in the breeze before streaking up the basin and over the next hill as it tries to catch the wind.  You'll hear it in the whistle of the Gambels quail cautiously announcing himself as dusk falls over the land, venturing forth with bobbing head out of the safety of the thickets and into the insecure openness once again.  And if you're fortunate enough to see the spring rains splash the land with color, the gentle merging of shape and hue and depth into a passionate beauty will soften any flinty impressions still left in your heart.

If you are simply

unable to spend a week or even a few days "roughing it" with tent and backpack, a more condensed and accessible version of the Chihuahuan desert, the Living Desert State Park, is available in Carlsbad, New Mexico, a town just twenty-five miles northeast of Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  The Living Desert State Park is an indoor and outdoor self- guided tour of the native animal and plant species of the desert.  Located just off Route 285 at the north end of town, the park offers a 1.3 mile exploration of the desert biome, including sand dunes and high desert mountain areas of juniper and pine.  In fact, Carlsbad, located at the eastern edge of the Chihuahuan desert, is an excellent base if you are planning to explore Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the surrounding area.  Carlsbad has all the conveniences of a big town - fine restaurants, fast food and ice cream shops, motels and hotels, RV parks and campgrounds - with a small town feel.  (You can get your bottled water here, too, as well as a hat to cover your head - necessities in the desert in summer.)  Like in most towns in Southern New Mexico, the people are casual and friendly.

Ridge and valley landscape at Carlsbad Caverns National Park

But if you do stay in Carlsbad, don't sell yourself short.  A night in the desert is an experience you will never forget.  The glorious sunsets, in red and purple, orange and yellow pastels seem to usher in the coming night as if they might be tucking in the earth with some glowing, panoramic blanket.  And as you watch the shades of evening drop around you, the magical landscape suddenly becomes inhabited with nocturnal creatures that have "appeared out of nowhere" - a kit fox pouncing on a fat sphinx moth fluttering on the ground; a pack rat looking for a "souvenir" to adorn his den with; a collared peccary, not a dozen feet away, noisily foraging around a patch of prickly pear cactus; the dozens of myotis bats frantically racing across the cool night sky, dipping and diving and disappearing, only to reappear again a minute later from out of nowhere.

As you fall asleep, your last image is of a billion stars overhead (in the desert, away from city lights, you can see them all) with the sound of the desert "nightlife" playing in your ears.  And in your mind, you realize that what you so carelessly regarded as a hard, empty land when you first arrived is truly a land of enchantment.

The landscape of Southern New Mexico is a natural marvel.  This is a hard land at first glance, a patient land at second, an enchanting land at third.  This is a land that will reveal its wonders if you are willing to wait.  I have never left the Chihuahuan desert without experiencing a deep sense of calm and inner renewal.  And for those seeking a respite from the speed and stress of the modern world, a few days in Southern New Mexico may be just what the doctor ordered.