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Canyoneering Route Description

Bad Canyon - 3A III
Death Valley National Park, California

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Pictures 01-24-10

Quick Facts

01-24-10, 4 people, 1 Day (Travel time in route 10.2 hours) - done via Bad Water Road up, not down from the Dante's as described.

Distance Via Dante's View - 6.3 miles Total, 2.8 miles Technical
Rappels - 11 Rappels, Longest Rappel 180 feet.

Can be done by using the Hades Canyon approach then dropping into Bad from the top of the Hades Fault.  The route description listed on this page is the standard route.  I prefer to use the Hades Canyon Approach instead which can cut off a little time and avoids the long car shuttle up to Dante's View.  However the approach involves a steep ascent up the ridge between Hades and Bad Canyons.
Distance Via Bad Water Road - 6.7 miles Total, 2.8 miles Technical

See the Canyoneer Trip Report Explanation Notes page for an explanation of how the technical mileage is determined.

Gear Used for Canyon

Rappelling and anchor gear, two 200 foot ropes and 50 feet of 1” webbing for sling placement.

See the Canyoneer Trip Report Explanation Notes page for an explanation of how the gear used list is determined.

General Comments

Doing the top down route from Dante’s View requires a long car shuttle but is less strenuous.   

Although 11 rappels are listed here there are only 9 mandatory raps.  Rap 5 is reported on Chris Brennen's site to have a down climb LDC to get around this 110 foot rap.  Rap 7 which is only 20 feet or so is easily and quickly down limbed RDC.  Down climbing around rap 5 may be possible but you would miss out on a 110 foot rappel.  Climbing around the 20 foot rap 7 is recommended to reduce time and hassle.

The route described here is starting from Dante's View, following a section of the Mount Perry Use Trail then route finding your way down into the top of Bad Canyon.  If you prefer to do Bad Canyon from Bad Water Road and ascend up, the approach for Hades Canyon can be used.  When you reach the top of the Hades Fault (yHadesTp) descend north about 0.1 miles down up the fault to the wash below in Bad Canyon (jHades).  Then follow the route description listed here from downt e technical section of Bad Canyon.

Approaching from the bottom from Bad Water Road is more strenuous (4000 feet of elevation gain in just under 3 miles) and would be recommended for fit hikers.  The route from the bottom will require another hour or so in route but will not require a car shuttle and will result in an overall faster time.  Another plus to the route up from the bottom are the incredible views.  While ascending the ridge you get views in 2 directions over the salt flats of Bad Water, good views of the route up and up close and personal views down into sections of Hades Canyon.

Getting to the Trailhead and Exit Vehicle (Escape Pod) Parking

To get to the Trailhead

 From the junction of highways 178 (Bad Water Road) and 190, drive east on highway 190 about 10.7 miles to the turn off for Dante's View.  Follow the signs to Dante's View which is another 13 miles.

To leave the Exit Vehicle / Escape Pod

An exit vehicle can be left at the Bad Water parking lot.  From the junction of highways 178 (Bad Water Road) and 190, drive 16.6 miles south on highway 178 to Bad Water.  Leave your exit vehicle in the Bad Water parking lot (sBadWater282).

If doing the route from Bad Water road up (using the Hades Canyon Approach), leaving an exit vehicle is optional.  It would add less than a mile to the route if you wanted to walk back to the start point to get to the vehicle you left at the start.  So a shuttle is not required.  If you have more than one vehicle it is still nice to leave a car at the Bad Water parking lot to shorten the exit hike.

Maps

Map showing entire route. The line running up from the lower left up to the Hades fault (center), is the route up the ridge between Hades and Bad Canyons.  That route is used and described in the Hades route description.  It was left for this map since it as an optional way of accessing Bad Canyon.  This helps visualize the two route possabilities.

Click for High-Res version.
Right Click then select "Save Target As" to save the Hi-Res version.

GPS Waypoint Information

Waypoint coordinates are given with the WGS84 datum and in Lat/Lon hddd° mm.mmm' format unless otherwise noted.

Details

The Approach:
From the Dante’s View parking area head north and follow the well worn use trail toward Mount Perry (tMntPeryUseTrl).  The use trail is well worn and passes by Dante’s Peak (pDante'sPeak) about 0.4 miles into the trail.    

1.3 miles from the start of the Mount Perry Use Trail will be a saddle where you will leave the use trail to begin the route down into the head of Bad Canyon (jBadCyn).  There is very little in the way of land marks around this saddle so it is difficult to explain what to look for.  Use of a GPS would be a good idea so you get the correct saddle. 

The only landmark I could find is a reddish rock outcropping to the left of the trail a short distance north of the saddle.  The area where this saddle is has no large rocks and only small vegetation and the rock outcropping is fairly obvious.

From the saddle where you leave the trail (jBadCyn), go west and follow down a shallow drainage.  On the left (south) is a very small ridge running along the south side of the shallow drainage.  This ridge will provide an easier descent than dropping directly down the drainage.

About 500 feet down from the trail the shallow drainage turns southwest around the lower tip of the ridge down from the trail (wBadRP-01). 

Follow down the drainage as it turns southwest around the tip of the ridge. 

About 0.3 miles further down the small drainage meets a much larger and wider wash (wBadRP-02).  There will be a few easy down climbs along the way.  There are some boulders that can be seen up the larger wash that look pretty impressive.

Once in this larger wash (wBadRP-02) travel southwest down the larger wash. 

About 0.3 miles down the larger wash will be a drop of about 15 feet down a smooth fluted wall (wBadRP-03).  Do not down climb or bypass this drop.  Instead leave the wash by climbing up the side to the right (north).  Go about 250 feet out from the wash up onto a ridge (wBadRP-04).  From this ridge is a view over to part of Upper Bad Canyon to the north in the distance.  The wall of Bad Canyon that can be seen from this ridge has sand hills from debris running down the walls.  There is a very large wash between this ridge and the portion of Bad Canyon that can be seen.

From this ridge the next step is to get down into the large wash / drainage north of the ridge.  Travel about 300 feet north east to where the slope down into the wash is more gentle (wBadRP-05).

Continue north down the slope and into the wash as it turns more west.  There will be multiple down climbs along the slope into and along the wash.  The further down the wash you go the tighter it gets and some of the down climbs begin to feel things could get technical soon.

About 0.2 miles down the wash will be a drop of about 30 feet (wBadRP-06).  There is no easy down climb for this drop.  We found webbing rigged here to make the drop a rappel which is not necessary.  From the top of this drop, climb about 40 feet up the right (north) side of the wash.  From the top of the climb out is a scree slope descending all the way down into upper Bad Canyon.

Drop west, down the scree slope about 400 feet down into Bad Canyon.  On the way down the scree slope stay right (north) to avoid a couple drops before reaching the floor of Bad Canyon (yBadtp).

Once in Bad Canyon you can clearly see the Hades Fault to the southwest in the distance.  At this point Bad Canyon is a very wide open flat wash, travel south west down canyon about 0.5 miles to the bottom of the Hades Fault (jHades).

Note:
If using this approach for Hades Canyon, climb southwest up the Hades Fault about 0.1 miles out of Bad Canyon.  The top of the Hades Fault is the top entry for Hades Canyon (yHadesTp).  Take a moment to enjoy the view down toward the salt flats over Hades Canyon to the south west and the view up Bad Canyon to the northeast.

The Canyon / Technical Section:
From the junction for Hades Canyon (jHades) continue down Bad Canyon (north west). A little over 100 feet down canyon is a down climb of about 10 feet.

About 150 more feet down canyon is a sheer drop of about 40 feet (wBadRP-07).  This drop is bypassed by climbing up and around LDC.  The start of the climb around has a short section of exposure but is very easy to get around.  A cairn style anchor has been set here by previous parties to rap the drop.  With this drop being easy to bypass and the first mandatory rap being quite a way down canyon, it is recommended to bypass this drop with the climb around.

Down canyon of this drop is lots of easy wash walking in mostly wide open canyon.  Along the way are several down climbs.  The first down climb is a drop of about 30 feet with a crack running down it LDC, allowing an easy route down the drop.  A couple more down climbs follow shortly with heights of about 10 and 5 feet.  Next is another down climb of about 12 feet down a rough wall which allows for great footing.

Rap 1 (dBadR1-2) is about 1.1 miles down canyon of the 40 foot drop with the optional rap set up.  Rap 1 is anchored from a large rock in a rock pile LDC of the drop in the wash.  Rap 1 drops about 90 feet down a solid rock section with little to no loose rock.  There is also a ledge a short distance down from the top.

Rap 2 is near the bottom of rap 1.  Rap 2 drops about 35 feet and is anchored from a large rock embedded in the wash about 30 feet up canyon of the drop.

Down canyon of rap 2 is easy wash walking with 3 easy down climbs along the way ranging from 6 to 20 feet.  Then the canyon opens up to a wide open view with a sliver of the salt flats showing off in the distance.

Rap 3 (dBadR3-4) is about 0.3 miles down canyon of rap 2.  Rap 3 is the biggest rap on the route and has 2 options.  Option one would be to rap directly down the drop in the water course which would be about 170 feet down a dry fall.  There is no anchor here at the time of this writing but there is sufficient rock debris in the area to allow for one to be built with ease.  I would not be surprised to see an anchor built here in the future.

To get to the current anchor for Rap 3, walk up and over LDC of the drop in the water course, down climb along a crack in the rock, walk over to a rock slope and then scramble about 100 feet down the rock slope.  At the other end of the rock slope you will find the anchor for Rap 3 which is a large rock attached to the wall of a small chute.  From here Rap 3 starts down a gentle slope then over the edge and drops about 180 feet.  About half way down the drop is a large ledge then the rap continues over the ledge to the canyon floor.  There is a lot of loose rock debris along this rap so try to be conscious of people below at the bottom of the rap.  Just below rap 3 is a short easy down climb.

Rap 4 is about 300 feet down canyon of rap 3.  Rap 4 is anchored from a small rock horn like feature about 20 feet up canyon from the top of the drop.  Rap 4 drops about 50 feet down a rough chute and could arguably be down climbed.  This rap can be up climbed fairly easy but may for safety should be rappelled rather than down climbed.

About 400 feet down canyon of rap 4 is an interesting down climb.  The down climb starts with a chute down a section of smooth rock.  The chute is just steep enough to allow a slow easily controlled slide to the lip of a drop off.  The drop of is 8 to 10 feet straight down.  Those comfortable with jumping will find this to be no problem.  Those that are not jumpers will find this a bit challenging and would best if assisted by someone at the bottom of the drop.  At the lip of the drop there is little to hold on to so grabbing something and letting yourself down easy isn’t going to happen.  There are rocks near the top of the slide that could be slung to set up a hand line but you will need a lot of webbing or would need to use one of the ropes.

Rap 5 (dBadR-5) is almost 200 feet down canyon of this interesting down climb.  Rap 5 is anchored from a cairn style anchor in the water course about 15 feet back from the drop.  Rap 5 drops about 110 feet starting down a fluted fall to a gravel filled ledge then down a vertical rock wall.  Not sure but this may be the big drop that Chris Brennen says can be bypassed with a down climb LDC.  It looks possible but we did not explore this fully.  Right at the bottom of rap 5 the canyon turns right (west) and gives a long gently sloped down climb along pink and gray striped rock.

Rap 6 (dBadR6) is about 400 feet down canyon of rap 5.  Rap 6 is anchored from a large rock about 20 feet up canyon from the drop.  Rap 6 drops about 50 feet from the lip of the drop down a dry fall with a little bit of overhang near the top of the rap.  The natural fall of the rope for Rap 6 leads into one of two pinch points for the rope.  The last person down should rap down LDC of the natural fall line by going over the LDC side of a large boulder wedged near the top of the rap.  This will keep the rope out of the pinch point and allow for a much easier pull.

Rap 7 (dBadR7) is about 0.1 mile down canyon of rap 6 and is anchored from a rock embedded in the wash about 25 feet from the drop.  Rap 7 drops about 20 feet.  This rap is easily bypassed with an easy down climb RDC of the drop.  To save time and hassle it may be best to bypass this drop with the down climb.  To get to the down climb, go up and over RDC then down a slopped down climb with good footing.  A couple people can be down the drop via the down climb before the ropes are set up for a rappel.

Rap 8 (dBadR8) is about 350 feet down canyon of rap 7.  Rap 8 drops about 25 feet down a gentle slope then about 30 feet down a vertical wall.  The anchor for rap 8 is a single piton in the rock LDC of the drop.  This piton is easy to miss (you may even find yourself walking right next to it and not seeing it) if there is no webbing tied to it.  There are few other anchor options here.  One option is a small bush in the middle of the stream bed.

Rap 9 (dBadR9) is about 0.1 mile down canyon of rap 8.  Rap 9 is anchored from a rock pile in the stream bed about 20 feet from the lip of the rappel.  Rap 9 drops about 150 feet down a fluted dry water fall.

Rap 10 (dBadR10) is about 0.1 miles down canyon of rap 9.  Rap 10 is anchored from a small cairn style anchor.  Rap 10 drops about 35 feet.

A little over 100 feet down canyon from rap 10 is a drop that looks as though it should be rappelled.  There is a ledge LDC the leads to an easy down climb along a sloped section of rock.  This down climb looks sketchy from the top and the initial thought is to set up a rap.  Someone has built and anchor here on the ledge.  The anchor is not substantial enough to make for a safe rap.  Not to worry, the walk down the sloped rock is easy enough it can almost be done hands free.  This is a very easy down climb that looks scary until you are on it. Then you realize it’s very easy.

Rap 11 (dBadR11) is about 100 feet down canyon of the deceiving down climb and is the last rap in the canyon.  Rap 11 is a 2 stage drop and is anchored from a cairn style anchor about 10 feet back from the lip of the first drop.  The first stage of rap 11 drops about 15 feet to a gravel filled ledge about 30 feet long then down the next stage of about 40 feet.

After rap 11 continue down canyon along the wash.  About .06 miles from rap 11 the canyon walls end and you have view of the entire alluvial fan for Bad Canyon (yBadBt).

The Exit:
Once onto the alluvial fan turn right (north) and walk about 0.5 to the parking area for Bad Water where the exit vehicle was left (sBadWater282).

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