Twenty Mule Team

Inevitably, even in the desert, there is a local history, of which much is made. In Death Valley the big thing is Borax. Borax was discovered and uses for borax were discovered in the 1870’s. A borax mining company was set up in Death Valley in 1881. Fortunately it was close to Furnace Creek, which had a year round spring, so water was available. The major problem was that the borax had to be hauled out to a railhead, the closest being at Mojave 167 miles away. To do this large wagons pulled by huge mule teams were developed, capable of hauling twenty tons of borax. Thus was born the Twenty Mule Team, a name that has become synonymous with Borax for the past 130 years. In America it is a brand name that stands alongside Coke Cola, although it is a much smaller company. During the 49'er Encampment we have been lucky enough to see a twenty mule team in operation, it is quite long and quite impressive. Considering the standard of road in 1881 (almost non existent) we are impressed that these wagons not only were able to operate and carry borax that distance, but that some of them are still around today (though the operating wagons were built later, around 1920. Not only did we see the wagons in operation, but also went to a talk about how they operated and their history, very interesting.We were very impressed with the famous (in the USA) Twenty Mule Team, so we have included a few pics of it.

Fun things to do in Death Valley

Driving in Death Valley could be great fun, there is a paved road that runs right through the valley, however many interesting features are on side roads, which are unpaved gravel. We tried to drive a couple of these and fond that they were just too rough for us, we value our little Chevy too much, so missed out on some sightseeing, however while we have been here we have revisited Badwater.

As well as Badwater we took two other side trips when in Death Valley, on Sunday we drove out to the  Mesquite Sand Dunes. We drove 25 miles north along Death Valley to Sweetwater, not much of interest here, just a motel, restaurant, store and RV park, however just a couple of miles before reaching Sweetwater we visited the Mesquite Sand Dunes. These are a small area of sand dunes, maybe only a few square miles and relatively low, up to a hundred feet. They are very interesting though. They have been formed where the North winds are forced to divide between two valleys, Death Valley and its neighbour, when the wind slows down it drops any sand it is carrying and so the dunes form.
We had a quick walk to the dunes, where on looking carefully I was able to find some sand tracks, the ones I now recognise from Coral Pink Sand Dunes, of the Tiger Beetle, or similar, lizards and Kangaroo Rat. What I did find for the first time was the track left by the Sidewinder Snake, which moves across the soft steep sand dunes in a series of sideways hops, leaving a characteristic series of tracks.
From there we travelled further north hoping to visit Titus Canyon, a 27 mile unpaved road, we only planned to do the final couple of miles up to the canyon entrance, however after leaving the paved road the gravel track was so uneven that we turned back after about half a mile, so that was a canyon we missed. On the way back we took the Rhyolite Loop, which takes us up about a thousand feet above the valley floor, giving us a fine view of the North end of Death Valley.

On Tuesday we drove out of Death Valley as Dante’s View gives some excellent views of Death Valley. On the way we stopped at Zebriskie’s Point, the name alone is worth the visit, however is an overlook that gives lovely views of the rock strata within which the borax is found, being a very soft rock it has been easily eroded by the rain which falls there, producing some very convoluted dendritic rock forms. On from there we climbed 4300 feet up to Dante’s View, an overlook which is directly above Badwater. The views of Death Valley are wonderful, you can see as far as the Mesquite Sand Dunes to the north, look down on Badwater and across to Telescope Peak. On the way back we took the Twenty Mule Team loop which winds through the old road used by the mule teams a long time ago.

Side Trip to Badwater

Or first side trip in Death Valley was to revisit Badwater, the lowest point in Death Valley.
On the way there we encountered some coyote, quite unphased by the road traffic.
We took three side trips when in Death Valley, the first was about 17 miles south to Badwater, which we had first visited in 1997, then it was August and about 127 degrees in the sun, now it is November and about 90 degrees in the sun.
On the way there we were amazed to see coyote by the side of the road, totaly unphased by the presence of cars and people.
We parked in the now modernised and enlarged car park and walked out on to the Salt Lake, it looks very similar to a frozen lake that has been ploughed and sprinkled with dirt, except where people have walked and here it has turned into a smooth white pathway. We walked out about 100 yards and realized that it would be exactly the same if we walked for a couple of miles, so turned round and walked back again. It was interesting to see that where people had dug little holes water gathered in the bottom of them, like digging in the sand down on the beach. Right by the road, which must be the lowest point, of 282 feet below sea level, the water actually broke surface and there was a small lake. Death Valley is served by a number of springs, those that spring from the West side are new water from rain and are seasonal. Those from the East side are what they call Ancient Water, as these springs are fed from deep underground and the water may have been trapped there since the last ice age, these springs run all year round, sometimes the water is contaminated, like at Badwater, with unhealthy minerals, such as sulphur, sometimes they are warmed by hot rocks underground, such as at Shoshone and Furnace Creek, sometimes they are good drinking water, again such as Furnace Creek.
Badwater is along the valley floor, the ground on the valley floor is divided between the salt flats which contain a lot of water (just dig down in the salt about 6 inches to find it) and solid ground, which is alluvial sand/rock/mud which has been washed out of the mountains either side, these alluvial fans are gently sloping, smooth surfaced land forms, which spread from the rock walls of the valley sides. It is here that the complex history of Death Valley becomes apparent. The area is now desert, yet the majority of landforms are water derived. The salt lakes are remnants of a much larger amount of water. Evaporation from large lakes is needed to concentrate that amount of salt. The alluvial fans all start at about 600ft. These alluvial fans are laid down in water, rock debris is washed down from the mountains and tumbles into the lake, once under water the debris is deposited more gently, providing these massive flat expanses of sand and mud, now hardened to a sort of soft rock. This evidence suggests that at one time Death valley, not too long ago, was a lake about 600 feet deep and had a much wetter climate.
Even in that inhospitable environment we found a little spider living on the salt flat, also Sally found a lovely dragon fly resting on the Chevy radio antennae, very interesting.
On the way back from Badwater we took the side trip to Artists Pallet and enjoyed the interesting rock formations with their many different coloured sand and mudstone rocks
One of the most fascinating places on Earth (sweeping statement, but true)

Into Death Valley

Following Highway 190 we climbed from Death Valley Junction over Funeral Mountains and swept down, past Zabriskie Point with its views of Death Valley and reached Furnace Creek at a bout lunchtime, there we joined the couple of hundred others who had already arrived at Sunset Campground, set ourselves up with a great view up Death Valley and of telescope Peak (11049ft) to the South West of us. We are not here just for the views of Death Valley, but also for a festival in the desert, it is called the 49ers Encampment (one assumes after the gold rush 49ers). It is an annual festival celebrating Death Valley through art and music and basically having a good time, which is what we hope to have.

After a relax we visited the Visitor Center to orientate ourselves and picked up some ideas for sightseeing trips. The in the evening we took our chairs to watch a sort of concert, just local RV’ers setting up and playing mostly Western/bluegrass/country music under the awning of a Fifth Wheeler, but with a crowd of a hundred or so watching. It was warm, the full moon rose in the East behind us and it was a great atmosphere.

We ware finally back here at Death Valley and everything is peaceful and OK.

Fremont Street Experience

Monday 29th October
This was to be our last day in Las Vegas, so we spent some time stocking up for our Desert Experience, 12 days in Death Valley. A big shop in Walmart.
In the evening we stepped out to Fremont Street to experience the Street Entertainment at night. It is indeed a truly amazing happening. Fremont Street is covered in with a high arch roof, a bit like an old train station. Set in the roof though are thousands(?) of lights so that the whole roof becomes a giant screen about 200 yards long. Combined with three stages, a giant 5 wide Zip Line going overhead and any number of street 'Artists' at street level this makes for a very interesting evening. On the hour the roof screen showed some rather impressive  videos to Don Mclean's American Pie, Queen's We Rock You/We Are The Champions and Bonjovi's something or other forgettable. Down below we could pick out Spiderman, Transformers, Hulk, Marilyn Monroe, Mr Spock, several Elvises, a few tarts, odd metal painted statues, Big Bird, Smurfs, a couple of Michael Jacksons, the YMCA gang, MrT and a variety of Alien Life Forms. All this was of course compounded by it being the Halloween Holiday, so throw in several Grim Reapers, witches and ghouls and it meant your head was constantly spinning round to see what there was to see. The three stages were very entertaining with live singing and dancing, showing a bits from Rocky Horror, Little Shop of Horrors and general ghoulish entertainment, including  their own rendition of Thriller. Then every hour everyone came to a stand still and looked up to watch the overhead screen and listen to the music.
The street was also well lit by loads of neon signs and screens. Including the famous Giant Cowboy, which used to welcome everyone with a loud 'Howdy Pardner' until some film mogul took a dislike to it and it has been silence since then.
This made a great way to finish off our visit to Las Vegas. Tomorrow back to the desert.

Las Vegas Farewell

Pahrump

On Tuesday morning we hitched up the wagon and drove off to the West, taking highway 190 to Death Valley, we planned to take an overnight break in Pahrump, the last large town before Death Valley as we had one or two preparations to make before disappearing into the desert. Pahrump is on the border between Nevada and California, so it is full of casinos, so we stayed at the Western Saddle Casino in their very nice RV park, with full hook up.

We purged the waste tanks and filled the freshwater tank. Did last minute shopping at Walmart for fresh vegetables and another 10 gallons of drinking water, to add the 20 gallons already in the van. Bought an extra 5 gallon petrol can, to use in the car or generator. Filled up with gas (petrol) at $3.52 a gallon ($5.53 a gallon in Death Valley). Filled the propane tanks.  Got cash. Went to the Salvation Army Thrift shop to buy more books. Yesterday I had cooked a large batch of rice (now frozen), and a large batch of bolagnase sauce (now freezing). We are planning to be in dry camping in Death Valley for 11 nights, so we wanted to be prepared. We set off on Wednesday morning, and managed to squeeze another 4 gallons of gas into the van and gas cans at the Last Gas Station before the border. Then continued West into the desert. Wonderful scenery. The great thing about the desert is that the geology is laid bare – no dirt or trees hiding the rocks beneath.  Just rocks and sand (and scrub) in layers of different colours, at crazy angles, eroded and washed away.

Las Vegas Shuttle Ride

We arrived safely back in Las Vegas and after a long but interesting shuttle bus ride got back to our trailer which was safe and sound waiting for us in the Main Street Station Casino RV Park.
We had waited in the shuttle line for quite some time, only to be ushered to a different bus, obviously business was slow so they gathered everyone who was waitng and put them on one bus, as opposed to having one bus go to the strip, one to the off strip and one to the Downtown casinos, so we knew this would be a long bus ride, as we had furthest to go. However it did mean that we got an unguided tour of almost every casino in Las Vegas. trouble came when the bus broke down. The bus was stuck in the middle of the road. We had to get off the bus, move through the traffic, wait on the sidewalk until another bus come and picked us up. No apology. After two hours we arrived at our casino - last on the bus. As we waited for our bag to be unloaded I mentioned to the driver that this had not been a pleasant ride, where upon he turned on me and to my surprise angrily agreed. How bad it had been - "Fourteen people had been dropped off and none of you had shown any thanks" (i.e. no tips). (What a surprise) I couldn't get any brilliant reply in, but only could say that I was entirely unsurprised and that such an unusual phenomenon was probably a reflection on the poor service and long trip - he should take it up with his bosses for putting such poorly maintained buses on the road. Wth that he slammed his luggage door stormed off and slammed his drivers door. However I felt a little satisfaction that the company had felt some redress for their obvious uselessness.