Marijuana Grow Site Discovered in Jail Canyon

[Desert Fog]

Park report...

Dangerous Marijuana Grow Site Discovered in Jail Canyon

National Parks Traveler article...

40-Acre Pot Farm Discovered In Death Valley National Park

[GowerGulch42]

Finally, I've been eyeing it on aerial imagery for months now. Probably really got going in the last year or so. Someone on PV forums reported it before their big data loss last year.

[MojaveGeek]

Wow, sorry for Jail Canyon. It would be strange to be walking up some canyon and find such, wouldn't it?

Looking at the sat images, I had not realized how green Jail is! Must be a good stretch of water in there. Looks like a jungle upstream from the cabin.

[wbdeford]

I wondered when this would become public.  As part of my May 2019 trip I had planned to pass through Jail Canyon, and posted stuff about it.  A ranger contacted me about it saying he was working on a drug investigation.  He asked me both not to go there, and also not to talk about it to not risk his investigation, to which I agreed.

I understood from him that the path through the vegetation is much easier, presumably because the dealers made it so for themselves.  Hopefully it won't be too long before we can visit that area, as I would very much like to explore it.

I was just in Hanaupah Canyon and they still have a sign warning about the drinking water possibly being unsafe.  I had previously consumed a couple gallons of it, after the drug bust there, but before I knew about it and had no ill effects, so I drank it again this time, again with no ill effects.

[TacoLand]

Can't say I've ever drank the stuff, but I've been smoking it for decades with no ill effects. 😎

[Desert Fog]

Here is a short update from the Pahrump Valley Times...

Marijuana grow site discovered in Death Valley

[Candace66]

You'd think by now people would realize that grow sites in the middle of the desert are easy to spot from the air or via satellite imagery.  

[Sparky of SoCal]

That puzzles me also. It seems like such a dumb idea I wonder if I'm missing something. Good to know I'm not alone with the wonderment.