I am doing my internship (along with 3 other interns) with the Henderson, NV-based USGS monitoring burned Desert Tortoise habitat in the Mojave Desert.  We will also be working on a few other projects, but this is the one we’re starting with.  I had never been to this part of the country before, let alone the desert, so this was a huge change for me coming from Michigan!  The first thing I noticed about the desert SW was that the speed limit on the highways is 75!  Not important, I know, but it was exciting for me!  I’ve never lived in a city this big, but so far Henderson has been fun, although I’m not a fan of the traffic or the crazy drivers out here…

We spent 3 days this week in the desert just inside Arizona.  It was weird not having any trees around, but I LOVED the stars at night!  It’s amazing how much sky you can see here!  The work wasn’t bad, we hiked around on the foothills and identified and collected little tiny plants.  My neck and back are a little sore, but overall it was pretty cool to be out in the desert.

After one week on the job I’ve decided that I love mountains and I do not miss the snow that they still have back home, but I do miss trees (Joshua trees and the palm trees in the city do not count).