February 23, 2020 Death Valley Day 3

Today was a busy and full day going to different areas of Desert Valley National Park.  It is about 3.4 million acres in size.  It is bigger than our 2 smallest states together.

Before breakfast, our morning view.

 The Borax Works.  The famed 20 mule team wagon, fully loaded weighed 36 tons.  Its main wheels were 7 feet tall and was about 100 feet long.

 This is where sand and soil ended up in the Death Valley canyon due to flooding and movement of the sediment down a side valley.

 The Salt Creek area is naturally salty due to the dissolving of salt into the water.  The distance across was only about 10 feet and maybe 2 inches deep.

 This is the same area with the camera at ground level.  It only looks wider..

 This stream contains Pupfish, which have the ability to survive in salty water which can at times be as salty as the ocean.

 Next to the stream is a plant called Pickelweed.  When you squeeze it, it gives off a liquid.

 The liquid has a salty taste and adds to the saltiness of the water.

 Grammie, Grammie...Where's Grammie.

 Some of the flowers still bloom under harsh and low water conditions.

 Next we drove to the Sand Dunes area of the canyon.  The dunes are about 14 square miles.

 Dan and Mary have been the ones to drive us all over the desert.  Even though they drove us in their vehicle, they have added another 400 miles to our travels.

 Tom decided to walk in the sand in his bare feet...and why not.  His T- shirt now has 34 blue squares for the National Parks that we have visited.

 Next, we were in the Rhyolite Ghost Town.  This building had glass bottles included in the outside walls.  It was made out of over 10,000 bottles.

 This building was the school in Rhyolite.

 The Rhyolite Power and Light company eventually shut down.  It is believed that the town had about 10,000 residents.

 The train station.

 Only a caboose remains near the station.

 This cross country bike trail looks steep from this angle but is really about 25 degrees when looking from another angle.

 Finally we passed by a sign when coming back to California from Rhyolite Nevada.

This is the best view we have looking up the length of Death Valley.

Same picture, just zoomed in a bit.

A panograph picture from the same spot.

The Keane Wonder Mine.

Because of it's success in using a horizontal shaft instead of a vertical shaft, it was able to mine over 1 million dollars of Gold in 13 years.

A Chuckwalla lizard

Again, more color from the desert.  Not a lot, but still color.

At the end of the day, we walked up Titus Canyon for a stretch.  In this picture you can see the resulting mud packed into the walls of the canyon when it had previously flooded.

We had another great day in Death Valley.  Grammie thanks everyone for watching.