Anyone over 60, which is the majority of the readers for this blog, other than our grand daughter, who I am not sure does read this blog, but for whom I write content, keeping it clean and family oriented, will remember the opening scene of many old black and white westerns (are we even allowed to say those words today in this hyper-hurts-my-tender-feelings-world), (and can we call them westerns, which excludes the easterns, northerns and southerns), (and can we call them "cowboys", as they did not ride cows, they rode horses), (although many were men), (and yet, undoubtedly 50% were girls, to ensure equal outcomes and to achieve government mandated quotas), (and we can't assume there were no women) - so back in the day of non-colorized films of many types of people usually riding horses, without doing harm to said horses, in environments of cacti and sand, with hills in the background to stage shooting at each other events, were often included images of a long line of hard pulling mules, not intended to exclude horses or oxen, which were not harmed in the filming of the event, which were hitched to wagons loaded down with mounds of grayish/white sandy looking material, which actual color was difficult to determine because the movies were non-colorized, from large grayish/white sandy looking hills in the background, with the objective of eventually stopping the hard pulling mules in front of your house to deliver boxes of the grayish/white sandy looking material to your doorstep, so it could be used in the washing of clothes to make them all turn out to be that same grayish/whitish sandy looking color when pulled from the old ringer washer and hung on the clothes line to dry.
(I am practicing for the Faux Faulkner Contest)
We were there...Death Valley...the Borax Hills...the 20 Mule Team wagon trails...
And Clyde was in his glory, reliving the old movie scene with all of his 440 horse power muscles bulging under his shiny skin.
He's like a double trace with 440 horses in the line-up pulling The Fox.
Without having to deal with 880 leather straps in your hands, or the need to feed them...
...nor shovel up the poop!
Considering those alternatives...
I really don't mind paying for his diesel!
Clyde auditioning to replace the 20 Mule Team mules...
...all of them!!!
We found Death Valley interesting to visit...though it would not displace Windy Hill for homesteading!
For the most part, it is a drive around destination, although some hiking trails exist, plus there is much that Willis the Jeep would enjoy, with miles and miles of off-road trails...
But bring lots of gas and water!
We were there on February 20th, so 14 degrees back on Windy Hill, a warm and dry 75 degrees in Death Valley.
And on August 17th this year, they set a new record...
highest temperature recorded...
for anyplace in the world...
ever...
130 degrees!
Just one more reason that we love our Windy Hill!!!
And Death Valley is...well...a valley...an old lake bed actually...
"Bad Water Basin"
...279 feet BELOW sea level.
Death Valley is the place old rivers come to die...
The rivers which flow into the basin, never flow out.
And whatever they are carrying when they die, stays in the basin.
That's what created the Borax Hills, where real men worked in the hot open sun to mine the borax from the hills, so we all could have grayish/whitish colored shirts...
A desolate, featureless place...where snowflakes would never survive.
The road carved back through the tailings was narrow, high sided and shifting.
Clyde had to rear up and twist on his rear tires to make a couple of the turns...
But he's a beast, so we made it!
Another must visit is Dante's View, where a twisty loopback road leads to a mountain top vista, 5000 feet above the inferno that is Death Valley.
From the vantage, much of the 90 mile valley can be viewed...
And perspectives gained for just how massive the valley and difficult the journey it must have been to cross it.
That's not water in the valley either...it's the remains of dead rivers!
One other required viewing is the Artist palette and Artist Drive.
A 6 mile one-way loop road, showcasing the unique beauty of Death Valley.
Unfortunately, panoramas taken in bright sunlight do not begin to capture the full range of actual color, created by the diverse range of mineral deposits carried into the basin by the dying rivers.
They say to fully capture all the rich colors, it is best viewed by the dying light from an evening sun...
Interesting how dying and death show up in much of the conversation about the valley...
But we were 2 hours away from The Fox, and we've read Louis L'Amour.
We have heard about the haints that walk the desert at night...
And we weren't sticking around to see if either the dying light or the walking haints were true!!!
And a closing shot of one of my favorite scenes from Death Valley...
I love that woman...
...wouldn't want anyone else beside me when passing through the Valley of Death!
Let the adventure continue...
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