The three B’s

Borax, Boron, and Borates.
Borax= Borax is a company, and a common name for the mineral.
Boron= the 5th element in the periodic table, and a town in California.
Borates=  minerals containing boron, commonly used in many household products.

When I was a kid I remember Borax being a soap (Borateem) but really it’s more of a performance enhancer.  43% of all Boron is used to make glass-   fiberglass, Pyrex, insulation, crystal etc. 17% is used in detergent, bleach, soaps etc. 12% is used in ceramics, enamels, glazes, etc. and 5% is used in fertilizer. It’s an essential ingredient for plant growth.  It’s even used as a flame retardant, in circuit boards and in cosmetics.  Quite a versatile mineral.

I mention Borax because huge quantities of the stuff have been found in this area of California, (including Death Valley National Park) and we have spent the last two days learning about it. Actually, this place is loaded with minerals and ore, including gold and silver.
     In 1881, Aaron Winters, of Death Valley, was told that the white stuff all over his land might be Boron. He heard from a stranger that if he were to pour alcohol and sulfuric acid on the ore and ignite it, if it’s boron, it will burn green.  It did, and the frenzy for Boron began.  Really, I want to know, in a time when cell phones, or even regular phones, didn’t exist, there was no internet, no cars, etc., how does someone find out that if this thing burns green, it’s worth a lot of money??  And how do they figure out how to even use it in products??
      Anyway, the land was soon sold to prospectors, and eventually fell into the hands of Francis “Borax” Smith, who consolidated the properties with his own and created Pacific Coast Borax Co.   Now all he had to do was figure out how to get the borax out of the valley and over to the railroad in Mohave.  It was 165 miles of desolate, road less, barren land, with summer temperatures reaching 130-150 degrees.

The solution was the 20 Mule Team. 

The wagons were custom built, at a cost of $900 each.  They were the biggest, heaviest and strongest wagons ever seen. Weighing in at 7800 lbs, each could carry 12 tons of borax.  There were two wagons  in each “train”, followed by a water wagon.  The most experienced drivers, called “skinners” were hired to haul the borax, and the mules were well trained for the job and even responded when called by name.  In order to turn corners without cutting it too tightly, 6 of the mules were taught to jump the rope and walk sideways  (depicted in the picture)  so that the wagons would follow the path behind the team. They could cover 16-18 miles a day, making it a 10 day trip through the desert to deliver the borax.

The mule teams were used for 5 years to bring the borax out of death valley, until the railroad was brought into the valley.

Although times have changed,  borax  is still  being mined  in  this area.  The mine  is  now owned  by U.S Borax Inc. and it’s one of  the two  largest borax mines in  the world.
After  spending quite a while in the Twenty Mule Team Museum,  we drove out to the mine and spent an hour or so in the visitor’s center.  They charge a $3 entrance fee per car, which we thought was pretty strange, but then we saw that they donate all the proceeds to local charities. 
Here, instead of mules, the borax is trucked out of the open pit mine in massive trucks  that can each haul 240 tons of material. The tires alone  are 11 feet tall.

Mojave Preserve (03-04-12)

170 miles later, we have driven through the Mojave Preserve, which encompasses most of the Mojave Desert.  Our first stop was the Kelso  Dunes. The highest of the dunes is about 650 feet tall.  What makes them unique is that they are “singing” dunes.  When you run down the steep slopes, the dunes make a sound similar to a small airplane flying overhead. 

 people skiing down the dune

After hiking for a half hour and still feeling miles away from even the bottom of the large dunes, I gave up and took out my camera.  We could see people walking along the top ridge.  As we watched, they “threw” themselves over the side and skied down the slope.  That’s the best way to make the singing sound, so I am just as happy I didn’t hike all the way up- there’s  no way I would have thrown myself over the edge. No more broken bones for me, thanks.  Paul was able to produce the sound to a lesser degree on a smaller hill, but I didn’t hear it.

We stopped at the visitor’s center before driving through the rest of the park.  They had a diner type restaurant there, so we each got a piece of home made pie (a la mode, of course). 

This area has been formed and influenced by past volcanic activity and one of the unique results was an accessible lava tube. A lava tube is created when lava cools slowly as it streams across the land.  The top of the lava flow cools faster than the lava beneath it, and when the lower lava continues to flow, it leaves behind a tunnel, called a lava tube.  There’s a ladder to climb down in order to gain access to the tunnel itself.

We walked the short distance to the end of the tube, where we could see holes in the lava that allowed the sunlight to stream down into the tunnel.



end of the lava tube



 

We had to drive 5 miles down a dirt road to get to it, but it was worth the trip.

Aiken Mine

After exploring to our heart’s content, we continued down Aiken Mine Rd. until we came to the abandoned Aiken Mine. It’s really more of a rock quarry, and had clearly been abandoned years ago.

It was now getting late in the day and our plan of hiking a few short trails wasn’t going to happen.  Instead, we drove on through, enjoying the unique landscape of the Mojave Desert.

Cinder Cones-a steep conical hill formed above volcanic vents



unusual shapes dot the landscape



some of the lava is full of air bubbles, making it very light.

When there’s absolutely nothing else to do…(03-03-12)

….we plan.  After making the decision to extend our stay to do more hiking etc., the weather changed our minds.  We booked another 3 days, knowing that the weather for the first day was not going to be great- 30-40 mph winds and cool.  But that's ok, we needed to do laundry, clean house, and do some planning.  We don't like to do lots of planning, and we don't like to make lots of reservations, but sometimes it's better if we do.  As usual however, we got sidetracked while figuring out what we might like to do for the next week or so.  We got bogged down with details, like which hikes look good,  which museums will be within driving distance of where we might be staying, etc.  Hours later we gave up and went to the pool, having accomplished very little. 
   The following day we had intended to do more hiking in Joshua Tree but the weather was even worse- temperatures up in the mountains were in the 40s and the wind had kicked up even more.  So, we had ALL DAY to plan stuff.  Wow.  Did I mention we don't like to do much planning? 
Anyway, I have been bugging Paul to help me plan next winter. And if we don't like planning next week, we really don't like planning next winter!  Unfortunately we will be in Florida, preferably the Florida Keys, and that requires us to make reservations now, or take the chance of not having a place to stay.  RV Parks in the Keys are a ridiculous price- from $75-$145 per night. I'm not sure they realize we bring our own hotel room with us.  The Florida State Parks are a relative bargain at $38 a night.  Of course, we aren't the only ones who realize that, so they book up pretty fast.  Actually, the RV sites book within 1 second of becoming available. The way it works is that at 8 AM EST 11 months before a site is going to be empty, it becomes available to book online.  So Paul and I, along with thousands of other people, are ready to push the "book this site" button, first thing in the morning.  Unfortunately, we are in California, so first thing in the morning means us getting up at 4:45 AM to turn on the lap top, Ipad, and Iphone, so we can use all three to try and snag a site.  We don't do it every morning, only on mornings that have quite a few sites available.  Still.  Sure seems like it's every morning.  I think my body is trained to wake up early now. As hard as we are trying, we have only been successful once, using that strategy.  We have a full 2 weeks booked at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  My other strategy is to check online for cancelations, and I do that at least twice a day.  I've snagged another 10 days using that method.  I have also already booked 10 days in Orlando at Christmas time.
    In order to finish up my "Keys" booking, I needed to know how long we want to wander around the Keys before heading further north.  So, we spent a good part of the day figuring out our Florida game plan, checking average temperatures in various locations, and getting a general idea of where we will want to go. I'll hold off booking anything except the Keys for now, because we are also thinking of taking a last minute cruise, if we can find a good place to board the kitty, so I need to research that.

Yesterday the weather finally improved enough to head to Joshua Tree.  We hiked about 6.5 miles along the Panorama Trail and the Black Rock Canyon Trail.  The trail was mostly sand, difficult to walk in, so we were ready for the hot tub by the time we got home.

A footnote:
Last week we hiked to Tahquitz Falls, located on local Indian land.  Its a two mile hike, and has the honor of being the most expensive hike we’ve ever done.  It cost us each $12.50 to do this hike.  Ouch.   We did see a lot of hummingbirds along the trail, and the view of Palm Springs was impressive.


Once we got to the waterfall, I must admit, it’s one of the most beautiful waterfalls I’ve seen, especially since it’s so unexpected to see one in the desert.