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This is the wagon train that a 20-mule-team would pull to lug Borax from the Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley. The first two carried the ore, and the last carried the water.  The trip was about 180 miles long through the desert!

Next up is the "Polished Marble Canyon". Over the years, rushing water and silt has polished the walls which are just about solid marble. The marble is quite smooth, but is not polished to a mirror finish.

It had rained the day before we arrived and it had rained the night we arrived.  It dawned on us that since this canyon was polished by rushing water, and since Death Valley gets about 2.5 inches of rain per year, and had received about half that in the last day or so, that we might not want to be here should it begin to rain again...

This view looking out of the cayon and across part of Death Valley was actually taken on our way down and out of the canyon.  Yes, that's the dinghy.

It was really quite a long walk/climb up to see what we could see. This was to become the standard in Death Valley. We both got quite a bit of exercise hiking around, and always, ALWAYS carrying water with us. Here I scrambled up a bit of the canyon as some others were having a bit of a time getting down. By the way, the best way to get down from hills made of polished marble? Slide!

Your intrepid explorers. (Don't forget that large size photos are available just by clicking on the pictures.  Use your browser's "BACK" button to get back here when you're tired of looking at us that closely.)

More marble. It's hard for my camera and laptop to reproduce the pink hues... I hope your monitor recreates it well. The rushing water must have swirled around to carve out and polish an area like this.  The shoe is for scale.  Honest!

On to Day Three ==>

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