⊗ Darwin Falls Canyon

April 1, 2019 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Northern California → Death Valley → ⊗ Darwin Falls Canyon

⊗ Technical Route ⊗

Warning: Do Not Attempt Without Proper Training – click here for details

Location: Panamint Springs Area, Death Valley

Time Required: 3-5 hours

Distance: 3.3 miles (0.4 miles technical)

Elevation Gain/Loss: 950 feet

Rappels: 2, lengths up to 110 feet

Red Tape/Notes: Access to Death Valley is $25/vehicle for a 7 day pass. Canyoning permit not required; we did this canyon as a loop route, but it can also be done as a shuttle from China Garden. See ropewiki for more details.

What’s Nearby?: Darwin Falls (hike), China Garden Spring, Charcoal Kilns

This is the technical, top-down version of the popular bottom-up hike listed as “Darwin Falls” in all the park guides (and on this site). If you’re pressed for time or are traveling with a group who doesn’t have the technical skills or equipment for the technical route, the basic hike is still a worthwhile effort, being rather short. But, if you have a little more time, this trip is definitely a nice way to spend half a day, and provides a great variation to the typical Death Valley canyons (i.e. dry). The approach is less than 2 miles, traveling up a ridgeline before crossing over to drop down into the canyon, where lush vegetation is visible below you. You can detour by China Garden for a look round if you have the time, but it can also be reached by driving up the 4-wheel drive road past the Darwin Falls trailhead.

Once you’re in the canyon, there’s some slogging through tall grasses and vegetation along the watercourse before you reach a waterfall which can be downclimbed, and then it’s a short distance to the first rappel, which is reason you came here. This waterfall dwarfs the one everyone thinks of as “Darwin Falls”, being three times as tall and maybe five times as beautiful. Mossy walls descend to a hanging garden before continuing down and ending in a free-hanging rappel where the waterfalls meets a pool at the base. This section is a little oasis, with water cascading over smooth rock ledges into wide pools. You unfortunately bypass rappelling through these (maybe they’re not always as pretty as they were for us?) on a trail down-canyon left, before shortly coming to the top of the second rappel, which takes you over the “official” Darwin Falls, where you’ll probably ruin people’s photo op.