>>2735271It can be one of the harder parts of outing in a desert biome, but it isn't terribly difficult to overcome. Knowing the seasonal patterns, the landscape, and your own limits helps.
Often the hardest landscapes to find water are those furthest from mountains, so high desert plains and flat low desert landscapes far from any topographic changes. Two examples being the low flat desert around Yuma, AZ and the high flat desert around Meteor Crater AZ. In these locales, water is often found in well shaded areas in washes (tree shade not necessary, it can be a wash side cliff for eg), water can also be found on the lee side of big boulders or at the base of waterfall washout areas, sometimes you might not need to dig even 1 ft to get moisture, others you might need to dig 5 ft (which wastes energy unless it is an emergency). The evap rate in high deserts is lower than it is in low deserts, and morning humidity is higher.
In more upland and varied topography desert zones, north facing canyon washes (ideally in shade and nearer to the bedrock) will usually have water just underground, for example even a small desert peak like Picacho peak might have water just beneath the surface in some washes. Water and soil moisture rises with humidity so mornings are the best collection times. You can collect and even filter moisture with a cotton t-shirt.
In more temperate and mountainous zones, water can flow year round in some desert canyons let alone montane ones. Same rules apply. North facing shaded canyons or washes in early mornings.
Know the wettest (winter and monsoons, in ID and MT it's often spring around May) and driest seasons (SW US, April-June). There is also water from certain plants, humidity condensation, and solar distillation of pee worst case. I typically carry 1 gallon of water and a filter on outings, in 100F weather I bring no more than 3 gallons. What you wear also helps, and also look up an "olla" (how people kept water cool in 100F temps).
