In 1998 as we drove through the mountains of West Texas from El Paso to Van Horn, we tried to hurry because it seemed so deserted and scary, the mountains seemed so high and desolate. Now I don’t think anything of it. In fact, they don’t even seem like mountains. After all, there are no hairpin curves and turns like the Sierra road going from Wawona to Yosemite Valley. There are no steep grades with signs that tell you the elevation of the pass as in the Organ Mountains coming from White Sands or lots of places in Yellowstone. And as far as desolate goes, nothing beats the boulder-like effect of the mountains going to San Diego. It seems that a giant is going to hurl them down at you in a rockslide. Not to mention that to get there you have to drive through the Imperial Sand Dunes. In short as we leave the West behind to drive East after living here from 1998 to 2012 the mountains aren’t going to seem the same.