I think it's because I've spent so much time in 'wastelands'... even in Texas. Having done so I'm always aware that even in what appears to be wasteland there is stuff out there, often amazing stuff... just over the horizon maybe or even closer, just over that small hill and down in a ravine.

Another appeal wasteland has for me is that no one else wants to go there. Almost always those places are infrequently visited, which appeals to me. I have made amazing discoveries in wastelands... like petroglyphs that 'just maybe' no other person in the last 2 or 5 hundred years has seen. I remember once in Utah coming a cross an enormous canyon that I did not know was there OR see until I was nearly stepping on the canyon rim. BUT...

That is getting hard to do these days because of private land blocking access. In Texas I was lucky because I was helping work cattle on GINORMOUS privately owned cattle ranches with no public access.

My ranch near Coalinga I think qualifies as one of the VERY seldom visited areas, (my ranch is private so ZERO access there except for us owners). I believe Waterfield once drove the paved road near my ranch which truly shocked me.... or he drove a road near there anyway. That road was almost untraveled except for the handful of private land owners along it's route BUT... then it was discovered by some of the motorcycle clubs and today a few bikers travel it - mostly during wildflower season... but not many. - JamesJM