Explore Western Death Valley National Park with the first comprehensive guidebook to this amazing California region. Lost between the rugged High Sierras and the glamor of Las Vegas, bypassed by most visitors on their way somewhere else, Death Valley is a sumptuous alignment of low desert valleys trapped between mountains that reach over 11,000 feet. This little-known and largely unexplored paradise is waiting to be discovered. Western Death Valley is a hiker’s mecca filled with salt flats and sand dunes, old mines and ghost towns, awesome canyons, breathtaking summits, delightful springs, unexpected streams, and more miles of unspoiled desert than one can explore in a lifetime. Hiking Western Death Valley National Park by Michel Digonnet is the first comprehensive guidebook that’s completely dedicated to this fascinating region. Illustrated with hand-drawn topographic maps, ripe with information about the area’s rich human and mining history, geology, and botany, this updated second edition takes hikers and four-wheelers to more than 200 destinations, covering a wide range of interests and skill levels. Book Features: More than 80 trips divided into seven sections - Fascinating information about history, geology, and weather - Introduction to the desert’s flora and fauna - Expert tips on hiking time, hazards, ethics, and regulations Michel Digonnet is a professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. Other than his lifelong interest in photonics and fiber sensors, he has been exploring many of the deserts of North America and other continents, and he has written several books on desert national parks of the United States. Surprise Canyon Surprise Canyon is one of those places you just cannot afford to miss. For nearly two miles beyond the end of the canyon road, you walk through a lush oasis of cottonwood and willows irrigated by a vivacious creek. Part of it squeezes through striking white-marble narrows where the creek erupts into sparkling waterfalls. Hardy hikers can continue further up canyon, usually with a backpack, to the fascinating ghost town of Panamint City. General Information Jurisdiction: Surprise Canyon Wilderness (BLM), DVNP (NPS) - Road status: Roadless; primitive road to mid-canyon (HC) - Surprise Canyon narrows: 0.9 mi, 620 ft up, 20 ft down one way/easy - Brewery Spring: 3.2 mi, 2,270 ft up, 40 ft down one way/moderate - Panamint City: 5.5 mi, 3,740 ft up, 40 ft down one way/difficult - Main attractions: Lush narrows, creeks, waterfalls, Panamint City - USGS 7.5' topo maps: Ballarat*, Panamint - Maps: pp. 355*, 367, 319 Location and Access Surprise Canyon drains the central western Panamints, just west of Telescope Peak. The canyon road starts from the graded Indian Ranch Road. A small sign points to it 1.9 miles north of the general store in Ballarat (or 5.3 miles south of the Indian Ranch junction). The Surprise Canyon Road first climbs 2.3 miles to the mouth of Surprise Canyon, then 1.7 miles in the canyon to its end at the site of Chris Wicht Camp. The lower canyon is pure Panamints vintage. What is most impressive is the height of the walls and their unusually colorful exposures. Taluses over 500 feet tall drape the north slopes, as smooth as sand yet tilted at a crazy 45° angle. The narrow wash, sunk beneath low gravel banks, is lost in this immensity of rock. So is the road. Often forced into the wash by hard-rock outcrops, it barely manages to squeeze by. The road is a little steep, but if it has been recently bladed by the county, it should be passable with a passenger car. Route Description Chris Wicht Camp. Once set on a high bank under ancient cottonwoods, this precious oasis was in use off and on for some 130 years, starting as far back as the 1870s. Chris Wicht, superintendent of the Campbird Mine at Panamint City in the mid-1920s, lived here for many years. In the early 1980s, Rocky Novak and his father George took over the camp for about 20 years, until their cabin and the lush spring went up in flame while they were burning brush in September 2006. Both were small-time miners at heart, the last of a dying breed. They had mined at Panamint City and at the Golden Eagle Mine across the valley, and prospected for the C. R. Briggs Mine. Rocky still occasionally drove to his gold mine in the southern Panamints, popped a few sticks of dynamite, and hauled the ore up here for processing. His mill was an assemblage of recycled prehistoric contraptions slowly yielding to rust: jaw and impact crushers, a ball mill, and a concentration table. Instead of cyanide, Novak used benign chemicals and electrolysis. “It is cheaper, more efficient, and it does not pollute the stream,” he said. His ore was not the richest. But he could harvest a couple of ounces of gold in a day. This was about the income of a Silicon Valley manager—if Novak was working five days a week, which he was much too smart to do. Unless he was out shopping for dynamite, he was usually at his c