Trip Report Lizard King - Grapevine Mountains in Death Valley

Lizard King - a canyon in the Grapevine Mountains area of Death Valley CA.

This one caught my attention when I was looking over the list of Grapevine Mountain canyons in Death Valley. I was looking for more of the half day, non-epic canyon adventures that I could squeeze in between the more commonly found epic long day canyons of Death Valley.

After scoping this little gem last November I decided that the left side approach climb was just a tad shaky with some loose and rotten rock up some fairly steep slopes. We decided to take a more leisurely/easier approach up and off to the right side of the canyon. This approach starts off with a 750 foot climb up a steep alluvial fan. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to climb one of these enormous fans especially one that has its very own roadside information sign. This route then follows a hidden couloir which leads to a drop into an upper eastern drainage of Lizard King. It is an easy hike down into the canyon from there.

I almost want to call this canyon “cute” with seven rappels to 100 feet ( we did use about 120 feet on one two stager) plenty of interesting down climbs, really cool blue narrows and it was a deep enough canyon to be in the shade most of the day..

Since all of the brittle anchor webbing needed to be replaced we took the time to rebuild all of the anchors just for practice sakes. Re-rigging and using a webbing knot choke anchor does give one a little more confidence in its use.

Special thanks to Scott Swaney for discovering this canyon and providing just enough detail about its stuff.

Thanks to my Sons Justin and Lorin for taking tons of pictures, hauling ropes and loads of webbing, doing the grunt work rebuilding all of the anchors and maintaining a high level of enthusiasm that keeps me going.

More Pictures can be seen here

https://picasaweb.google.com/1149702...dKingFeb132015

Doug French