Our captive artist has escaped, but
several web pages were found
in his stinky cell.
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I thought I'd never seen such a flat place when Alamogordo, New Mexico came into view the first time, barely taller than the surrounding chaparral of stunted mesquite and rabbit bush. The Tularosa Basin seemed colorless; the whole world was a low-contrast beige. As I started into the mountains from the 4500' basin toward the 9000' observatory, where I was to have a job interview, I passed a sign ENTERING THE LINCOLN NATIONAL FOREST. Now, "forest" means trees to me. I noticed the cloud of alkali dust in my wake, scanned the hills for anything taller than creosote bush, and began to laugh. I quit laughing when the scrub turned to juniper and I nearly clobbered a mule deer doe, one of a small bunch with their young ones. Prickly pear cactus gave way to the piņon belt, to Ponderosa pine, and finally to fir forest — five ecological life zones, Sonoran to Alpine, within 16 miles.