Hike Desolation Canyon Death Valley National Park, CA

Directions

Route Map

Download GPX

Desolation Canyon GPX Track

I need to offset my substantial website costs somehow! You can download a hike/drive GPX to assist you here. Before sharing my GPX tracks with others, please remember my site is otherwise a free resource.

Add to Cart

View Cart

Desolation Canyon is a colorful and easily-accessible non-technical canyon on the west south side of the Black Mountains. It's located near the scenic Artist's Palette Road, a road that views a lot of the very colorful scenery from the pavement. This hike heads into that scenery, leaving the crowds and cars behind. I headed up a wash leading to the mouth of Desolation Canyon, and a social trail materialized as I got higher up and entered the progressively narrowing canyon. The greens and purples on the canyon walls slowly became more prominent and I soon found myself in some tighter narrows with big bursts of color. Past the narrow section Desolaton Canyon continued to be pretty, and I continued all the way to its head to get a view to the south of the sunset over Artist's Palette. A social trail led the whole way up.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!

Heading toward Desolation Canyon's mouth.

Looking back toward Death Valley.

Looking back toward Death Valley, further up the canyon.

Entering Desolation Canyon.

Looking back down Desolation Canyon.

Heading up the steeper section to gain the lookout.

Desolation Canyon lookout.

Artist's Palette from the lookout spot.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!