Mosaic Canyon (Death Valley National Park, California)

This holiday weekend was supposed to be a three day, two night backpacking trip on the Cottonwood and Marble Canyon Loop in Death Valley. Monitoring the weather reports closely in the days leading up to the trip, my friend, Bill, and I expected a modest chance of rain early Saturday morning, but we got a bit more than that. Death Valley receives just over two inches of rainfall a year. It seems all of that was to fall this Friday and Saturday. The heavy rains resulted in a number of flooded areas along the parks highways and even closed the northern section of the giant park to vehicle traffic. 

Arriving at the park on Saturday morning, we stopped in to a ranger station to inquire about the conditions of our planned trip. Without hesitation the ranger said "I wouldn't go". He elaborated that the gravel roads and jeep trails leading to the trail head were nearly impassible due to mudslides and washes. With that in mind, Bill and I weighed our options. We decided to turn the backpacking trip into a car camping trip. Securing a campsite at Stovepipe Wells, we picked up an assortment of beer to enjoy while the rains stopped and the ground dried a bit before putting our tents up. 

Waking early Sunday morning, we were amazed at the humidity and amount of condensation on everything. It was a wet, muddy mess, but we quickly broke camp and headed for the first of our day hikes, Mosaic Canyon.

A road leading south out of Stovepipe Wells leads to the trail head for Mosaic Canyon. Once there, we found the trail, which simply follows a wash up a shallow, but narrow canyon, to be passable. The wash is mostly made of sand, and while still a bit wet, was not nearly as bad as we would have expected. Initially, the canyon is very wide, but quickly narrows as it passes through polished sandstone and gypsum, which makes for a very pretty site. 

After about a half-a-mile, the trail turns sharply and we have to climb up a slippery section of the polished surface. Making the turn, the canyon once again opens up into a wide vista. It must have taken an amazing amount of water to carve the landscape so widely here. The rocks here and throughout the canyon are a veritable palette of desert reds, oranges and golds.

After another three-quarters of a mile, we hit a narrow section plugged with boulders and while we look for a way to climb over, I mention to bill that I just didn't think the risk was worth the reward in this case. The boulders are slippery and any fall from them would be onto other hard boulders below. Not knowing that the canyon above the plug was any different than what we had already seen, Bill agrees and we turn back and head for the jeep. This short hike was only about 2.5 miles, but it was only the first of the day.