Death Valley, Day 3

  Wednesday, November 4

We woke up early again and hit the road up toward the Stovepipe Wells area where Mosaic Canyon is located. There was one other car in the parking lot from Colorado, but they were sleeping in their car so we had the canyon to ourselves. We are really lucky as this is a very popular hike. The canyon is beautiful. There are smooth marble walls through the beginning that look like caramel swirl ice cream that curve around bends in the canyon.

 There are also many areas that make it obvious how Mosaic Canyon got its name. There are some areas we have to climb up up.  Again, this canyon ends for us at a high dry falls.

 

 We had planned on going out on the Mesquite Sand Dunes after Mosaic Canyon but the wind had kicked up so the sand was swirling all about. Tomorrow looks like a better idea. The road to Salt Creek Interpretive Boardwalk opened this morning. This seems so strange in the valley. There is a stream and lots of areas of green and birds. In the spring and summer, pupfish are swimming but at this time of year they are dormant. They get their name from their frisky play like behavior The pupfish here are endemic to Death Valley and there are 5 different species all in different locations. The salinity at Salt Creek is similar to seawater but in some of the other areas the salinity is up to 5 times that of seawater and those pupfish have evolved to survive that high level of salt. Pickleweed is the primary plant in the Salt Creek region and can tolerate a soil with 3 to 6 percent salt content.

 Our next stop was the 20 Mule Team Harmony Borax Works site. It began operation in 1882, mining and processing borax on the floor of Death Valley for shipment by 20-mule teams (actually 2 horses and 18 mules). Most of the laborers were Chinese immigrants who were paid $1.30 a day (actually good wages for the times). These mule teams hauled the borax 165 miles to the town of Mojave where a railroad shipped the Borax from there. When a wagon was fully loaded with borax it weighed 31,800 pounds. They hauled 2 wagons and a water tank so the total weight was 73,000 pounds which was over twice the weight of the mules. The mule teams only hauled borax out of Death Valley for 5 years, when borax was discovered closer to the railroads. Borax is used for glass production, soap, ceramics and tiles including those used on the space shuttle, plant fertilizers, medicines, flame retardants circuit boards and is an ingredient in Play-Doh and Silly Putty. A funny story we read is that the mules are smart enough to understand human voice commands but one day the mules wouldn't move. It turns out the mule-team driver had heard a preacher give a sermon on the evils of swearing. He therefore tried omitting the swear words he used in his commands, but the mules couldn't understand the new swear-less commands! 

 We went back to our room for a bit and visited the Borax museum and toured our resort that we really hadn't taken the time to see.

 We were then off to do another hike, this time to Desolation Canyon. That is definitely appropriately named. This time there was no one in the parking lot and we never saw another person in the lonely canyon. This was another trailless hike. The way in for us was definitely not the way out. We can never figure out where we go wrong, but were very happy to find our car. It was getting late in the afternoon and being out in the dark didn't sound like too much fun! We were never in danger as we could see the main road and the crowded parking lot of Golden Canyon a couple miles away. In the 1977 movie Star Wars, when Luke Skywalker is attacked by the sandpeople riding Banta "elephants,  it is filmed in Desolation Canyon. 

 We had a bit of daylight left so went to The Devil's Golfcourse. This road also opened today, so we were very lucky to get to see these very strange salt pinnacles. Apparently there is water below the surface which evaporates and leaves deposits of salt. As the salt builds up, the water continues rising through it as if the sun is drinking the water through a salt straw.

Devil's Golf Course

After returning to the room, I had to check out the pool. This is a spring fed pool which maintains a constant temperature of 84 degrees and apparently empties twice a day. I have to say this has to be one of the most pleasant swimming experiences I have ever had. So nice. Perfect temperature, but a little cold when I got out. 

 We finally went out for dinner at the ranch and had some comfort food, quite good. These past 3 days in Death Valley have been fabulous. There are still areas we didn't get to see. The Artist's Drive road is still closed, under 3 feet of mud. We wanted to get to other areas of the park but 3.4 million acres is a lot of territory to cover!  Death Valley is the largest National Park in the lower 48 and has lots to offer. We have to come back! Many of the areas are only accessible by 4 wheel drive. The wildflower display here should be good in the spring due to the rains received in mid October.  A few days in March doesn't sound like a bad idea, does it?