Hike Panamint Butte via Lemoigne Canyon Loop Death Valley National Park, CA

Feb 6, 2026 — Lemoigne Canyon is located in the southern Cottonwood Mountains, the home to the historic Lemoigne Cabin that dates back to the late 1800s. It’s one of those desert destinations I’ve wanted to check out for years but never made the time. Naturally, I needed to get a peak as well to justify the drive out there, so I spent some time looking for a way to include one to motivate me to go check out this area. Lemoigne Canyons has a north and south fork, the southern one leading to the cabin, while the northern one heads for many more miles into a wide open flat basin that houses multiple minor summits, including Panamint Butte.

I figured I could hike the north fork, snag a couple of summits, and then head up and over a ridge down into the south fork to check out the cabin. Panamint Butte is more often reached from the west via a steep and loose route, so I was looking forward to being able to make a hike to this summit a bit more pleasant. Others reach Panamint Butte by going up and over Towne Benchmark, but I’d already gotten that peak and didn’t want to repeat the route. The loop I planned seemed totally reasonable, even if significantly longer than the standard routes to the summit, plus I’d get to tick off a couple of destinations.

The first few miles of Lemoigne Canyon road were passable by by my Crossover SUV, the second half better than the first. However, when the road dropped into the Lemoigne Canyon drainage, I decided to just park and head on foot. It’s one of those roads that’s faster without a vehicle, though you could cut off a couple of miles round trip with a burlier vehicle.

I reached the wilderness boundary and continued into the mouth of Lemoigne Canyon. The section leading to the junction of the two forks had some gorgeous sculpted narrows, but the north fork quickly lost its excitement, really becoming just a gravelly wash walk with occasional cliffs at bends in the canyon. Unless you know stuff about rocks and rock layers and can appreciate the geology better than I, you’ll probably agree it’s a pretty hike, but mostly unchanging for miles. There were a few exceptions where the canyon narrows briefly.

Higher up the canyon expanded significantly and Joshua trees dotted the slopes. Eventually I reached the head of Lemoigne Canyon’s north fork, and continued within the wash up and toward the base of Panamint Butte. I started up the low angle and fairly boring walk to the summit.

Upon reaching the summit, I quickly learned that one major downfall of my route was that I didn’t get to see what I imagine is an incredible view the whole way up the steep, standard southern route. Panamint Valley below stretches out forever and I only saw glimpses of the cliffy face. Fortunately, the traverse along the ridgeline from Panamint Butte over to Peak 6480 was absolutely incredible and I felt satisfied by the views I did get. Towne Benchmark loomed above as I hiked along the soft terrain covered in embedded boulders.

From the summit of Peak 6480, my next goal was to drop north, then ascend to a saddle along the taller ridgeline to the northeast so I could then drop down into the south fork of Lemoigne Canyon. This segment adds around 800 feet of vertical gain to the hike and may seem silly if your goal is just the two summits, since it adds no more summits to the day. It feels especially silly considering the ridgeline is taller than both peaks were. However, I really did want to see Lemoigne Cabin, and I didn’t really have much interest in returning the same way I came, so the plan was still on for me. Of course, you could just drop down back into north fork of Lemoigne Canyon to simplify things.

I headed toward the ridgeline, attempting not to lose any elevation when possible so I wouldn’t have to do as much work to reach the ridge. There was quite a bit of side hilling on the way, but the slope angle was mellow enough that I wasn’t bothered. The route I chose to gain the ridge worked out well, adding only a couple of little Class 2 obstacles. I immediately got wild views of Death Valley far below.

My chosen descent followed what appeared to be the least steep spur ridge that would take me safely into the south fork of Lemoigne Canyon. The top was still a bit steep and loose, but I’m confident after looking around at various other options that this was a solid choice, and I found I was able to keep the route Class 2. I was just happy I hadn’t decided to come up this way because of its steepness. My spur ridge got to a low point where I could easily drop off to the left and enter one of the drainages feeding into Lemoigne Canyon.

There were some pretty narrows as I descended, as well as a few mining site remains. Higher up was an open mine shaft with the remains of some sort of foundation. Farther down was a wooden structure that I believe was a mill of some sort, as well as plenty of rusted trash, err- I mean historical artifacts. I imagine there are a bunch of mining fragments in the various side canyons near the cabin, but I was content with my explorations for the day.

Soon I reached the junction with the side canyon housing Lemoigne Cabin. A small dilapidated older cabin is dwarfed by a much larger, more modern tin cabin from the mid 1900s. I didn’t stay long, but was happy I finally got to check it out. I headed down the wide south fork Lemoigne Canyon, just a wide wash for a while before narrowing into some interesting sculpted walls, ultimately reaching the junction with the North fork. At times I noticed an old road bed, apparently open to the public until the late ’90s, but now closed.