Cryptobiotic soil crust, pine seedling, and Opuntia spp. The biological soil crust (dark color) contains lichens, mosses, microfungi, bacteria, and green algae. For more info see www.soilcrust.org (USGS site)

'Newspaper Rock.'

Native american ruins from 950 A.D. This particular structure is a granary that was used to store corn.

Closeup of lichen on cryptobiotic soil crust. Soil crusts limit erosion, improve water retention, and improve soil health. They are extremely sensitive and a single human footprint damages the living crust. Recovery can take over 200 years in dry areas.

'Scrub Jay' - very common in the west. Same bird that is endangered on the few remaining scrub habitats located on the central ridge of Florida. According to the bird books the isolated population in Florida is a remnant from a time when there was contiguous scrub habitat from the Southwest states to Florida.