Death Valley - Part 2

I am pleasantly surprised by this place - it wasn't on my top 10 bucket list! We have lucked out with cooler weather than usual and so have done more hiking than we thought we would.
A ranger said "90% of the visitors to the park are foreigners" - we haven't heard much English around here!

Dante's Peak



Sunset at Zabinski Point







Salt Creek

It is hard to believe that this marsh and creek is in Death Valley - it's the home of the tiny "pupfish" - that has acclimated to salt water.

 



Mosaic Canyon



"20 Mule Team Borax" Wagons

They mined borax from Death Valley for about 5 years. All we knew about it was from the TV - "20 Mule Team Borax" theatre and detergent. They hired Chinese laborers to scoop the borax (looks like salt) from the desert floor and haul it in wagons to a processing area where they boiled it and then dried it into crystals. The crystals were then loaded into wagons and pulled by 20 mule teams to trains in Mohave. I am amazed at the history I know nothing about!  We will never complain about how our jobs sometimes "sucked!"