There is something about the desert.… There is something there which the mountains, no matter how grand and beautiful, lack; which the sea, no matter… - Edward Abbey

As for writing, that's a cruel hard business. Unless you're very lucky it'll break your heart.

it will be objected that a constantly increasing population makes resistance and conservation a hopeless battle. this is true. unless a way is found to stabilize the nation's population, the parks can not be saved. or anything else worth a damn. wilderness preservation, like a hundred other good causes, will be forgotten under the overwhelming pressure of a struggle for mere survival and sanity in a completely urbanized, completely industrialized, ever more crowded environment. for my own part i would rather take my chances in a thermonuclear war than live in such a world.

There's beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.