The Badlands of America

Can you believe it's October 1st already? I know I cannot, this year has just flown by. Anyway when we visited Death Valley it was a very spontaneous visit. I did a quick look online to find places to go but had no real plan or even a clue on how long it would take to drive through there. So as we were driving I saw the signs with names of places I saw online and told Janet to follow that sign not knowing what we would expect to see. So that's how I came across this photograph. It's a photograph of Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. It was named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie who was the Vice President of the Pacific Coast Borax Company. This is the company that made the 20 mule teams famous. These teams of 18 mules and 2 horses pulled multiple large wagons (with 9 tonnes of borax in each one) to the nearest railroad from their mines in Death Valley. Borax is used in all sorts of household items such as detergents and cosmetics. Zabriskie Point is known as a Badlands, which is a type of terrain that has been extensively eroded by wind and water and creates some spectacular scenery. Click on the photo for a larger version, it looks even better.