We spent the day in Death Valley. You can't appreciate this place unless you actually come here. It is a very harsh environment. The day we visited there was a wind that was running over 30 mph with higher gusts. It was almost impossible to get out of the car in some places. During a drive to one part of the valley, the outside temperature gauge in our car registered 131F (55C). You get an appreciation of what the early people had to deal with. They really had to be tough, and crazy. Borax mining was the biggest industry around for a long time.