This is how they got the borax out of the desert. Mules pulled the wagons in long trains. If you look on a box of borax, the mule train is the symbol on the front of the package. 

 
Can you believe people lived here!? This is whats left of an old borax mining machine. They put the rock and sand in here and it seperated the borax from the rock. 

 

There was a ton of these holes everywhere. They ranged from being very tiny to big enough to reach an arm into. The tracks that led into them varied from mice to snakes, so reaching into one was not really considered. 

 

Other than birds and coyotes, this was the only creature I saw. There was a ton of reptile tracks, like snakes and lizzards, in the sand. Unfortunatley no sightings though. 

 
Obviously they get some kind of water build up here. I nned to look into it more to find out how much rain they get and how long the water lasts. There is a ton of life that lives here that take advantage of this small amout of water. 

 

I could have written "help", but it just seemed to korny :) 

 

This is a little more of what I thought Death Valley would look like. 

 

My home for a month. Nice backdrop. There were very few people staying in the campground. It looked more like a large parking lot then a place to put a tent. I picked a nice site that bordered along the desert so it didn't seem like I was camping at Walmart. There were some bikers staying not too far away that had their bike bag stolen with some food in it. The coyotes dragged it off into the brush and ate all their beef jerky. It was eventually found about 100 yards away. 

 

The cloud formations are amazing! 

 

I really thought it would be more sandy, like a desert. The area is very diverse in its terrain. 

 

Death Valley. What an interesting place. It looks like there is absolutely nothing there, yet it's full of life, culture and history. The temp was a shock. I went from sleeping in a 35deg air temp to 75 deg. Very dry and sandy, too. I really wish I had more time to spend here. I didn't plan on it being such an interesting place to visit. There are tons of places to hike to and lots to do. Not a place to visit in the summer though. Air temps, in the shade, can reach as high as 135 degrees. The road in the picture is the one entering the valley from the east side. 

I was driving along and out of nowhere, this graveyard pops up. It's part of an old mining town called Keeler, Ca. Population 50. there are still a couple of trailers that look like they're being lived in, but not much else. Since the grave markers were wood, there was no way to read the dates on the old one. I did find one in brass that read 1983. that seemed to be the newest one.  

This is one place that will get revisited in time. Three days is just not long enough to spend here. 

This is a bad pic, but this is the porta ledge the climbers had slept on. The wall is so big, it takes several days to climb the face of it. They sleep on these man made ledges at night that are hung from the rock. I love to rock climb, but have no desire to sleep out there over night. 

Here is a perspective picture of El Cap. Look at the middle pine tree. Can you see the climbers to the left of it? 

The view behind my tent. There was a full moon the nights I was there and it lit everything up so beautifully. I wish the pics had come out of it. My camera doesn't take night pics very well.  

One of several waterfalls along the way. I think this is called Vernal Falls. They say in the spring, the whole wall is nothing but a giant sheet of water. 

Views from the hike down. It was a toal of 17 miles round trip. Definately worth a beer and a big dinner. 

A closer view of the top. So close and yet so far! 

More views from the top. 

Views from the top! 

This is Half Dome. The final destination is the nose of the far peak. Unfortunatly I didn't make the last 100ft to the peak. The park puts cables up to assist with the climb, but had pulled them for the winter the week before I got there. Without the cables, it's nearly impossible and very dangerous to climb the nose. I made it to the basin between the first hump and the base of the cables. If you look real close, you can see a fine line that runs up the side of the mt. That is where the cables are placed. 

A great hiking path on the way up to Half Dome. This was the most strenuos hike I have ever done. The grade was very steep and the elevation change was 4500 ft. The next few pics show just how worth it the hike was. 

The famous El Cap. Everything here is so big and so close, it takes a bit for the senses to take it all in. 

I made a short stop at Yosemite National Forest. Awesome place! Did some hiking and just some general hanging out. This place attracts a very different type of outdoors person than Yellowstone. It's a lot younger crowd withs lots of climbers.