Much to cover tonight. This will “three pager” I believe. We crossed the Mojave Desert, saw the nations largest borax mine, almost next door to California’s largest solar production plant (SEG), and ended up in the San Joaquin Valley , where many crops, nuts, fruits and berries are grown. What a contrast. That did not include the 40 mph head winds into mountain valleys. Fortunately the dust was not a problem.
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| Some Route 66 signs before we left Needles,CA |
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| More of Route 66 as we crossed it twice. |
The mountains and the Mojave were spectacular in their own right. I thought there would be much more sand, but there were stones and then sand and even a few sand dunes in the flat land and mountains. The desert is the highest in the USA and also the largest. Int contains the lowest point in the nation at Death Valley.-215 feet below sea level. They are in the "Rain shadow" of the Sierra Mountains. For millions of years the mountains rose and created this desert.
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| Teddy Bear Cactus in the eastern part. |
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| More Creosote and some sage in the central part. |
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| Much less plant life in the western portion. (Another Route 66 sign) |
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| Evidence of lave flows with scattered lava chunks. |
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| These are the Joshua Trees found no where else. |
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| Near Mojave CA there is an airplane "graveyard." |
This section of I -40 out of Needles has very long (10-15 mile) up hills and downs hills.To top that off the HEADWINDS today were at 40 MPH with warning signs for high trailers and vehicles. .Before we got to CA 59 off I-40, thought the winds were the worst. Even putting in gasoline one had to hold on to our hats. Gas prices in California are HIGH. we averaged $3,34 /gal, but did pay $4.19 at one place. The mileage on the truck stayed at about 7.3 mpg until we got out of the wind here in Bakersfield. Quite contrast to the 15.0 mpg two days ago.
A huge pile of Borax caught our eye at Boron, CA , from whence the Borax comes. Boron is a scarce and tiny element and needs to have high amounts of soil to extract . Colemanite is the Borax ore.
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| The ore pit at Boron. |
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| Some of the borax being readied to ship. |
From the excerpts…
“Borax traces its roots to California’s Death Valley, where borate deposits were discovered in 1872. The twenty mule teams Borax used to haul ore out of the remote desert live on as a symbol of the company’s commitment to innovation. The current open pit in the Mojave Desert began as an underground mine in 1927, and Boron Operations was converted to a surface mine in the late 1950s. At this time extensive facilities for refining ore were built. In 1980, Borax built its boric acid plant, securing the company’s position as the world’s leading boric acid supplier.” AND…
”Boron is home to the U.S. Borax Boron Mine, California's largest open-pit mine, which is also the largest borax mine in the world. A large borax deposit was discovered in 1925, and the mining town of Boron was established soon thereafter. This borax deposit is now the world's largest borax mine. It is owned by Rio Tinto Minerals (formerly U.S. Borax). They are a London based Co. It is operated as an open-pit mine, the largest open-pit mine in California. This mine supplies nearly half of the world's supply of refined borates. Rio Tinto Minerals is Boron's primary employer, employing over 800 people”. The town ofBoron is about 2,300 people.
Another feature of this open land is the following.
“Six miles (9.7 km) east of Boron, across the county line in San Bernardino County, is the world's largest solar power production facility. The Kramer Junction Company (KJC) is the managing general partner of the five 30 megawatt Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) facilities in the Mojave Desert at Kramer Junction, California. Together with its wholly owned subsidiary, KJC Operating Company, KJC operates and manages these facilities (SEGS III-VII). These units generate enough electricity to provide the electrical needs of 30,000 to 40,000 homes without the use of fossil fuels during the day.
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| One of five SEG's in the Kramer system. These can be seen from the highway. |
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| A "trough" for collection the energy. |
**SEGS are solar thermal plants, using reflective parabolic troughs to generate heat, then steam, then power. It is supplemented with natural gas.
After the run through the San Bernardino Mts.where the terrain changed from the desert and Joshua Trees (only found here) , the temperate nature of the windward and wet side of the mountains began to show . Trees and grass can grow here.
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| The Joshua trees in The Mojave desert. |
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| Some of the San Joaquin Valley. |
In the valley they effect of the tremendous amounts of water use shows in the crops, trees , orchards and groves that stretched for hundreds of miles. Walnuts, oranges, peaches, garlic, tangerines, tomatoes, kiwis, hay, alfalfa and numerous other crops have been harvested with great success. DeRuosi Nut, a large walnut processing plant in Escalon, has been in the valley since 1947. Certain places are identified quite strongly with a given crop: Stockton produces the majority of the domestic asparagus consumed in the United States, and Fresno is the largest producer of raisins. The largest problem today is the amount of nitrates in the ground water as a result of water runoff and percolating into the water reservoir. Much o the 18% of the US food grows in this valley.
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| One of many container trains moving east from the Coast. |
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| Another one moving east |
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| A load of onion seed bulbs in a rest area next to us. |
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| Onions up close, white and small.(onion seed bulbs.) |
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| That's what the sign said on the truck. |
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| A road that is near the Borax plant. (see above) |
All in all it was a terrific contrasting day. The photos will help to discern the differences in the visuals we encountered. Getting out of the 100 F heat and onto tolerable 85 F temperatures was a blessing.
Tomorrow we head for Morro Bay and the Pacific Coast we shall see many contrasts including, but not limited to the temperature.
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