How much actual uninhabitable desert is there in the continental USA? I'm in the Mojave and it's far from uninhabitable. I've never seen a barren wasteland de

How much actual uninhabitable desert is there in the continental USA? I'm in the Mojave and it's far from uninhabitable. I've never seen a barren wasteland desert of infinite sand dunes like they show in the movies, not in the USA. It might exist here, but I don't know where. My experience in the Mojave has been one of diverse and abundant life. According to the elderly folks around here there used to be Tortoises everywhere as recently as the 1980s, but all the automotive traffic has practically wiped them out. We still need to practice restraint and consider consequences in the desert.