Jesse Harding, a young nature photographer, discovers a baffling petroglyph in a remote desert of California. Cached inside the Indian rock drawing is a conquistador gold coin. Could it be a link to missing history? A marker for hidden riches? Or something more ominous?Jesse is determined to decipher its mystery. It just might result in the big break he is looking for. He teams up with Kate, a local archaeologist, to follow a perilous trail of clues into a forbidden canyon to find a legendary lost goldmine.The two soon learn that gold is not the only thing at stake. Important archaeological finds await discovery, so significant that they are guaranteed to propel the careers of both Jesse and Kate into skyrocketing success.But the rumor of gold has spread to every busted and out of luck miner in the desert.

Vicious men are already hot on their trail-greedy and obsessed, all wanting the gold, and all ready and willing to obliterate any archaeological site or anyone standing in their way.The rush is on. Can Jesse and Kate survive the hostile desert, protect an undiscovered archaeological site, and find the fabulous treasure without getting themselves killed by gold hungry miners and before an ancient shaman's curse brings doom on them all?Gold . Tons of it, hidden, guarded by vipers and Indian spirits in a forgotten place remembered only in legend. What secrets does it hold? What is the real mystery behind the legend of gold?And what evil lurks, imprisoned for centuries, straining for release, hungry for revenge? Who will get the gold? Who will survive?.