This is where I grew up. I thought it was ugly when I lived there but recently I went back and found it very beautiful. The desert has it's own unique beauty that I didn't appreciate when I was younger.
I agree about the desert being beautiful, though I tend to like a little more plant life You have a couple of nice landscape images. I thought you could bump the levels up on some of them. Your hosting site makes it a little difficult to look at the pictures (those shaky ads).