MBCA's Desert-Wise Living Tour Essay Contest was initiated in 2012, providing gift certificates donated by local businesses as prizes for sharing reactions and insights from participating in the Landscape Tour. After a two-year hiatus in 2020 and 2021 when we only created video tours, the contest was reinstated in 2022 and expanded in 2023 as both an essay and visual art contest. Each year's 1st place winners are viewable through the links below.

If you want to know how enjoyable and inspirational the Tour is, read these short first-person accounts!

2023 Essay, Allie Irwin
2023 Visual Art, photo by Corrina Paton
2022 Essay, Amos Collins
2019 Essay, Claudia Bucher
2018 Essay, Cynthia Heaton
2017 Essay, Rosalie Mendoza
2016 Essay, C. Reed
2015 Essay, Marsha Straubing
2014 Essay, Kathy DeRouen
2013 Essay, Susan Jordan
2012 Essay, April Dice