its kind of deceiving from the air, but once you walk around on the ground or
drive it, you can see how rough it really is.
You may walk away from a forced landing in the desert, but your plane wont.

Maule Driver wrote:

My western flying has been limited to glider racing out of Minden NV where
there is plenty of desert like terrain to the east. Also West Texas and
Montana.

Nothing I've ever seen anywhere was as unlandable as the 500km circle around
Minden. If it wasn't a road or dry lake bed, you were likely to be totaled
and possibly injured. The absence of agriculture has a lot to do with it.
I've flown around Tucson and saw very little if any landable terrain. If
man hasn't processed it, it's usually unlandable. That sparse desert
vegetation is more than tough.