Beyond what most people think about archaeology -- with its cleanly numbered dates, and discoveries--lies a vibrant and controversial realm of scientists, thieves, and contested land claims. Here, naturalist and adventurer Childs explores the field's transgressions against the cultures it tries to preserve, and pauses to ask: To whom does the past belong? Written in his trademark lyrical style, this book carries readers directly into his adventures...

"Craig Childs has walked thousands of miles, season after season, into the desert looking for a wildness few people ever witness. In places that should have only desolation and waterless death, in seas of sand dunes and snow-swept high deserts, Childs has discovered an infinitely powerful grace. In the labyrinthine slots and walls within the Grand Canyon, he maps an improbably course toward a chute rumored to be an ancient shortcut through impassable...

Craig Childs has spent years in the deserts of the American West--as an adventurer, a river guide, and a field instructor--and has developed a keen appreciation for these forbidding landscapes: their beauty, their wonder, and especially their paradoxes. His extraordinary treks through arid lands in search of water are an astonishing revelation of the natural world at its most extreme.