Michael Petraglia says that in the past, the spot must have been a lush river valley: "There is a major valley across the area which once was a river running westward forming waterfalls and taking water to the low fertile lands west of Al-Magar, " he explains.

BBC: Desert finds challenge horse taming ideas

In a peculiarly American way, the cabin-fee issue has therefore turned into a sort of morality play in which these people argue that the government should keep their rents low in order to prevent something even worse: the prospect that public lands might become solely a province of the rich.

ECONOMIST: Cabins in the wilderness