Overview

Monarch Canyon is a nice, 1.1-mile hike down a rugged canyon to a spring in the Death Valley Wilderness Area. The route passes several historical mining structures along the way and some interesting geology.

Presented here are photos of the return up Monarch Canyon. For a detailed description of the route, including directions, maps, GPS coordinates, and photos, see Monarch Canyon.

On the way out, consider skipping the final miner's trail the bypasses the high pour-over at the end of the hike. Instead, hike up to the base of the pour-over and either return to the miner's trail or take a steep route straight up the hillside.

There is some interesting geology and amazing folding and faulting in the walls of the canyon below the pour-over. From the pour-over, hikers can scramble directly up the steep hillside to the south rather than backtracking to the miner's trail.

Back at the trailhead, a side canyon enters the main canyon from the south. This is a pretty little canyon with more amazing geology. The rim of the canyon is capped by a layer of white rock, and below the cap are layers of contorted sedimentary and conglomerate rock. It takes only about 15 minutes to hike up the canyon through the contorted rock to where progress is blocked by the wall of white rock that forms an amphitheater. There are some polished scramble-ups and a couple of pour-overs to climb over or around before getting into the amphitheater. This short side trip added a nice finishing touch to my hike.