Question: Looking on [thesaurus.com](http://thesaurus.com/browse/desert) I can find only synonyms for "desert" with negative connotations. Are there any synonyms with positive connotations? Specifically, something that invokes the sense of clean desolation and unspoiled nature.

Answer: 
Rather than look for a word with positive connotations (even National Geographic wasn't able to put their usual positive gloss on an [article about the Atacama](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0308/feature3/)), you can use a word that gives an exotic flavor to the defining feature of a desert:

> 
> **xeric**, *adj*.: (of an environment or habitat) containing little moisture; very dry [OED]
> 
> 
> 

So you can write about *crossing the xeric landscape of the Mojave*, for example.
Untouched, undeveloped, uninhabited. Perhaps wilderness.