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Joel Bickings
Last updated on Monday, December 23, 2002
Joel Bickings lives in Alamogordo, NM, and works as an editor with the U.S. Government. He has written for newspapers and magazines, and in his spare time pens short stories and novels. His favorite activities are hiking and climbing in the mountains and going to plays and art festivals.
Joel Bickings
Articles by Joel Bickings
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. So you've decided to explore Southern New Mexico. You have your road maps, a cooler of food and beverages, and jugs of water in the back just in case. You set out across broad basins under an ocean of blue sky, wandering over rugged mountains rising up from the surrounding plains. The rolling massiveness of the Cooks Range, the rocky needles of the Organ Mountains, and the lofty heights of the Mogollons inspire you. You're an idealist. But no matter how romantic your impressions may be, no matter how much the bright sunshine makes the expansive scenery glitter, the chances are what you won't be thinking about is a fortune in gold. As you gaze out over the enchanting vistas, odds are you won't be imagining a long, trailing caravan of Spaniards and Indians trekking over ridges and basins in search of a golden legend.
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