Whoa! Crypto! Otherwise known as cryptobiotic soil, "a highly specialized community of cyanobacteria, mosses, and lichen" (Wikipedia) it's a very important part of the desert ecology. Crypto binds loose soil together and limits soil erosion significantly, creating an environment for larger plants to get a footing and eventually grow. Crypto can survive torrential downpours, but not trampling of human feet, vehicles or grazing cows. Some crypto can take decades to form so it's very, very important to not walk into a field of crypto (by staying on established paths or hard rock). Most of the damage being done is by grazing cattle and vehicles. Sad and wasteful because cattle are normally not penned in in areas like this as the vegetation is very marginal for growing cows. The cows probably do much more ecological damage (habitat destruction, erosion, pollution) than they do in good (marginal amount of food). When you buy "organic, free range" supposedly eco-friendly beef, it's quite likely such meat was raised on land like this.