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| Bad Canyon - Death Valley, CA | | -
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| | Bad Canyon - Death Valley, CA | | | |
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Bad Canyon - Death Valley, CA
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| Hiking | 7.57 Miles |
945 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.57 Miles | 8 Hrs 41 Mns | | 1.06 mph |
| 945 ft AEG | 1 Hour 33 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| partners | | Bad Canyon is described as a "deeply encased chasm that drops nearly 6,000 ft in less than 7 miles from Dante Peak to Badwater. At it's core is a spectacular, mile long, deep and narrow passage riddled with high falls, divided by a vertiginous 200-ft drop-off". From Dante's Peak "the views of the gaping void of Death Valley provide a strangely primordial experience. You can look straight down at the salt flats and at Mt Whitney."
After reading those quotes from Hiking Death Valley: A Guide to its Natural Wonders and Mining Past by Michael Digonnet I had to do Bad Canyon!
As I was hiking up to Dante's Peak, I figured I should text my mom and check in since I finally had service . I told her I was on Dante's Peak and was going to descend down Bad Canyon to Badwater. She said that it sounded like a lot of Bad. I responded telling her it was because we were Bad-asses! She said she believed that! And on we went.
I made a slight navigational error as we descended down into the canyon. There had been a pretty good faint route that we had been following and it had sucked me in to believing I didn't need to check the GPS. But when I did I saw it had put us where I didn't want to go. I didn't want any surprises so we contoured over to stay on route. From there we scrambled down a side drainage into Bad Canyon. There was some drop-offs that we had to really work to get around but it was all fun.
When we entered Bad Canyon we had a gentle walk down to where it got interesting. We did 11-12 rappels throughout the canyon with the longest being about 180 ft.
As we went down canyon we'd get a glimpse here and there of Badwater's salt flats. But that didn't prepare me for seeing the salt flats from the last rappel and then walking out on the alluvial fan to the Badwater parking area. As we walked we could see the people walking at Badwater. They looked like ants on ice skates! Check out some of my last photos to get your own perspective! |
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