But, walking the caps wasn't easy. The locals call the caps the 'brains' - because of their shape and because of the many deep faults that run through them. In addition to the difficulty of getting around the faults, it was also necessary to skirt the cryptobiotic cryptobiotic gardens spread across the caps. Think of thousands of tiny gnarled fingers sticking out of the sand and you have an idea of the shape of cryptobiotic soil. The fingers are a blue-black symbiotic crust of algae, lichens, fungi and microscopic plants that binds the sandy soil, making it highly resistant to wind and water erosion.
Some gardens hold barely enough soil to provide for a single plant.
Others have collected sufficient soil to support a pinion pine, wildflowers, and colonies of claret cup, barrel and prickley pear cacti. As we zigzagged our way northeast, we occasionally crossed small canyons cutting through the caps. At each, we wondered whether we had reached the outflow of the canyon we were looking for. In time, however, a small red canyon opened in the caps. There were no human prints in the wash - just a single deer, a few lizards and some mice had been there since the last rains, which may have been weeks ago.