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The American West
Travel & Places · Classic

The Desert

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Use the arrow keys to move between letters. Press Enter or Space on the first letter of a word, then again on the last letter. Press Escape to cancel.

A few of the words

SAGUARO
The saguaro cactus grows only in the Sonoran Desert and can live for more than 150 years, yet it may not grow its first arm until it is 75 years old.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
ARROYO
An arroyo is a dry streambed that can roar to life within minutes during a summer cloudburst, carrying a wall of muddy water across the desert floor.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
OCOTILLO
The ocotillo looks dead most of the year, but after even a brief rain its cane-like stems burst into small green leaves almost overnight.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
CREOSOTE
The creosote bush releases its distinctive earthy perfume when rain hits its waxy leaves, a smell many desert travelers say is the true scent of the Southwest.Find this word in the grid to read its note.

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the desert word search

The Desert: a free online word search

The desert word search covers ground from the Sonoran to the Great Basin, where SAGUARO and ARROYO sit hidden in the grid like landmarks on a slow drive west.

About The Desert

Out where the pavement ends, the desert has its own quiet pulse, the tick of cooling rock at dusk, the far-off yip of a coyote, the shimmer of a mirage dissolving above a dry wash. Saguaros stand like patient sentinels across the Sonoran basin, their arms raised against a sky so blue it almost hurts. Life here is unhurried and deeply adapted: the rattlesnake coiled in the shade of a boulder, the vulture riding a thermal, the lizard doing push-ups on a sun-warmed sandstone ledge.

How to play

  1. 1
    Find a word.Tap its first letter, then tap along to its last. The trail fills in and finishes itself when it spells a word. Or press the first letter and drag.
  2. 2
    Words run in straight lines.Across and down, and on the harder difficulties diagonally and backwards.
  3. 3
    It marks itself.Each word you find takes on its own soft colour on the grid and is crossed off the list.
  4. 4
    Choose a difficulty.Relaxed, Classic or Challenging set those directions and how much the word list helps, never the grid size. Tap the A buttons at the top to enlarge the letters, or pinch the grid.
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