Death Valley Deep Dive 2024

[Beardilocks]

Brice and I headed out again bright & early for another knee-killing day in Death Valley.  The target this time for him was Peak 3300 in the Black Mountains overlooking Coffin Canyon, while my target was the network of Coffin Canyon side drainages and just generally out for an amazing adventure. 

I was stoked about this hike because this whole region is almost completely lost to the general human consciousness and virtually unvisited in modern times, if ever.  Specifically I mean the region between the DV-salt-pan-facing Western slopes of the Black Mountains and their Eastern slopes in high Greenwater Valley.  Lying within is a vast landscape of brightly colored hills, steep mountain peaks, dark & mysterious canyons, and stunning vistas.  A whole world that goes virtually unnoticed by the millions of visitors passing above & below.  In part this is because access is daunting.  No roads come even close to this wild corridor.  The approach from the Death Valley salt pan side is daunting, with virtually all drainages falling hundreds of feet at a time over spectacular but impassible dryfalls.  Lack of roads on the Greenwater Valley side mean very long round trip hikes with significant elevation gain on the way back. 

For the specific area here in the Coffin Canyon system, it doubly complicated by the large off-limits area surrounding the open-secret that is the fossil-footprint collection in the Barnyard.  The easiest way into the Coffin Canyon drainage is unfortunately shared with this heavily enforced no-fly-zone, forcing dedicated explorers to undertake a treacherous 1900ft scramble up & over in just under a mile. 


We started out in the cold wind, climbing the fan from 240ft below sea level. 


The ridgeline we would be trying to navigate.


You're not getting very far up Coffin Canyon before a massive dryfall blocks your progress. 


Trucks patiently waiting below. 


Over the first & highest peak on the ridge and heading towards Peak 3300 in the background. 


Bit of a drop into Coffin Canyon before getting to 3300.


Looking back down Coffin Canyon.


Gorgeous colors throughout this area with the brick reds contrasting the green hills.  Even the wash has a purple-ish tint to it. 


Crazy amount of hoodoos in the area.  They are generally not super common in DV but this canyon has thousands. 


Going up a colorful side canyon slot.


Now, part of the inspiration for this hike was a photo I had spotted years ago of a potential natural bridge on the www.stavislost.com site.  In the photo, part of what MAY be a bridge is seen, but Stav doesn't call it a bridge and we all know that photos can be deceiving.  We knew it was in this area, as he had come in on the same route we did for a canyoneering/rappelling trip back down the huge dryfalls in Coffin Canyon proper. We just didn't know exactly where.  Although we both had guessed different sides of the wash. 

We found it rather quickly up a this cool slotty side canyon that required several short climbs up various dryfalls.  There it is!


A new natural bridge for the DV list!  Credit to Stav for the first photo.  But we can confirm it is a legit bridge and reasonably large.  Human for scale.  I dubbed it Hoodoo Bridge for the jumble of hoodoos on top of it. 


It even has a bonus tunnel/window/double-bridge section, whichever term suits your fancy. 


Cool double-legged hoodoo nearby.


At this point Brice left to bag his peak.  I had wanted to accompany him but a) doing so would leave very little time or energy for exploring the area, and b) my knees already bloody hurt WTHOUT the additional 2000ft climb. 

I had spotted on satellite that the next side canyon over from Hoodoo Bridge had a bridge-like structure that I suspected was a big chockstone.  Confirmed.  Quite a large one too. 


From under.





Next I headed down Coffin Canyon to see how far I could get before I hit the first major dryfall and rappel, leaving a few side canyon to explore on the trip back.  This killer cave has been carved out of a curve in the wash. 





Another large caved carved out.  The hoodoo pillars everywhere through this section add a level of drama and visual punch.


That's the ridgeline we came in on.


Warm & cool narrows.


This upper section of Coffin is really up there with the best in the park.  I have no doubt it would be on everyone's bucket list along with Titus and Marble if only it were more accessible.  It definitely makes a mockery of Golden Canyon and other pavement favorites. 





Awesome Sphinx head with a freshly-dusted-with-snow Telescope Peak in the background. 


Finally hit the first big drop.  It's much further down from where we dropped in than I thought it would be.  The secrets contained in the next 900ft down are known only to the rappelling crews.





Heading back up canyon.


Next I headed up another side canyon that I had passed up on the way down canyon.  At it's entrance it looked rather dull & unassuming and opened widely past the mouth, not looking nearly as fun or as likely to contain another bridge as many of the other tighter side canyons in the area.  But I was looking to get out of the wind for a pee and a granola bar so I hiked up into it. 

And I couldn't have been more wrong.  Immediately after the first twist in the wash the canyon tightened up considerably and… ended? 


But WOW.  How stunning is that??  But what is it?  Cave or…?


I let out a huge WHOOP when I saw there was light coming through.  Second bridge of the day!  And this one completely new as far as I am aware. 


And bloody huge.  It has to be 20ft inside.  It also has a small tunnel on the right like the last one, but curved so it's not showing light through. 


From behind.


What a cool, gorgeous natural bridge to add to the park list.


I dubbed it Cathedral Bridge because of the arched shape and the pipe-organ looking columns of hoodoos on the right.


Next I hiked further up the wash of Coffin Canyon as it opens up to the NE with huge layer-cake white hills on the South side, all deposited when this area was the floor of a massive prehistoric lake 3-5 million years ago. 


I found this odd rock-pile on the sort of island where the wash splits.  From below I thought it might be a Native American hunting blind, but it from up level with it, it's possibly a prospector's cairn. 


Next I turned left and headed up a deep & tortured drainage off the south flank of Peak 3300 in search of more bridges.  We had some satellite LPBs (low probability bridges) up in this wild drainage. 

More of these (possibly) gas cans in the wash on the way up. 


More pipe-organ hoodoos.


Running low on both time & energy, I was also stymied by this (at least) triple dryfall.  I thought I could conquer the first one, but I definitely needed help to clear the second.  The third wasn't visible enough to ascertain climbability.  It is a very pretty sort of salmon colored hard rock falls though. 


An attempted bypass led me to a beautiful view, but also into a sticky spot on a very steep loose surface mostly leading down to more dryfalls. 


This south flank of 3300 is absolutely tortured & gnarly.  No sexy ridgelines to assist in bypasses.  Just crazy.  I had to throw in the towel as this was more of it's own capital-A-adventure than a side-quest.  If you look dead center in this photo you can see either a deep cave or a huge bridge/arch. 


Zoom.  Probably an optical illusion, but it almost looks like there's light through there.  Where's my drone when I need it??  Lol. 


Back down the wash. 


After finding Brice having a nice relaxing jog off the mountain, we headed back down.  Or rather, back up 500ft out of the wash and then back down below sea level. 

Looking back down into Coffin Canyon again. 


Looking back at Peak 3300 that was summited by at least one of us today.


Stunning views on the way back down.  But watch that footing!  You're walking on marbles half the time, especially downhill.  Oh and bring gloves.  I neglected to and regretted it.


The current level of Lake Manly.  Damn it's beautiful.  So unbelievably blue.



So all in all not a bad day.  Totals for me racked up to about 8.6mi and 3700ft of elevation gain.  I'm pretty sure that I need one of my knees replaced now.  But I bagged 2 new natural bridges in DVNP, experienced one of the most beautiful places you could ever hope for that almost no one ever gets to, and just completely had a blast.  One of those rare days where you feel that you truly lived and felt your soul grow.