I tell him that Jon Crowley Jr., who is considered the off-roader’s expert on the Sand Mountain issue, told me that the BLM and the environmentalists have “no baseline to know if there is any decline” of the subspecies. Crowley contends there is no scientific evidence to prove that the butterfly is being harmed by off-roading. He also contends “…the Endangered Species Act goes too far to protect subspecies. There are only very slight variations between subspecies of Euphilotes pallenscens.”

Dean says that the butterfly exists on a thousand acres of habitat. I ask him where. He says, “This is it. Right here.” Between the grommets and the screws, there is a piece of dust. That is the blue butterfly habitat.

He points to the area around us, which is just sand.

”A couple years ago, this was all Kearney buckwheat, which is the larval host plant for the sand mountain blue butterfly. But with the increased traffic, they’ve taken out a lot of it.”

Dean shows me a BLM map depicting an aerial view of Sand Mountain. The detail of the map is astounding. Dean has gone so far as to make notes about individual remaining Kearney Buckwheat plants.

Great Basin A Gulch in the Escalante Desert Going solo in the lonely canyons of Escalante The Loneliest Road A journey across the Nevada's Great Basin and the Loneliest Road in America. We follow the struggle between off-roaders, Great Basin Indians and conservationists over the fate of a blue butterfly. Magicians, Travel Writers and Summer Lake Part II of a conversation about travel writing, this episode continues into the southern Oregon Desert. Rachel, Nevada and Area 51 Area 51 is a dusty set of hangars at the bottom of a dry lake bed. The Owyhee Puzzle Part I of the Oregon Testament. Follow us to Leslie Gulch, where we stumble upon a yet undiscovered Native American site. The Alvord Desert Part II of the Oregon Testament. Fishing under the Steens Mountains, and wandering the alkali flats of Alvord Lake. Mono Lake They are twisted, trollish, ungodly, like a woman turned to stone East Oregon High Desert Wandering the High Desert of Eastern Oregon The White Mountains By the accidents of geologic history, this land has remained relatively unchanged. Zion Canyon Zion Canyon as a launching point for discussion on the politics of sin. Glen Canyon What Creatures will Roam Glen Canyon? It's the question I had to ask, even as I rolled into America's most lurid town.