Scorpion Canyon - Death Valley

[french_de]

Scorpion Canyon - Northern Black Mountains of Death Valley February 12, 2016

For some of us this was our second visit to Scorpion. It is a great half day canyon with the very early morning light capturing the beauty and vastness
of the surrounding area. We placed some of our vehicles at the exit point for shuttle back and entered the canyon from the 20 Mule Team road which.
has now been reopened after having some significant wash out last fall. It is now nicely graded.

This was a nice time to be in Death Valley with temperatures in the low 80's, clear skies, a once in a lifetime super bloom of yellow and purple flowers,
away from the bad inversion in Salt Lake City and no crowds.

The last time we were in the canyon we checked out the split at rap 3 on the right side. It looked to be be in the 200+ foot range and it rejoins the left split further down the canyon.
This time we brought enough rope to do that right side rappel at the split.. It is a two stage rappel with about 70 feet of free hang at the end and has an easy to build webbing anchor up top.
We used about 190 feet total for that rappel. About halfway down and at the edge of the first stage of this right side rappel is a crack that could cause a stuck rope on pull so a little extra care
is needed while rope pulling. Otherwise it is a fun and scenic rappel!

Thanks to my canyoneering partners Andrea, Jessica, Brinda, Jeremy, Justin and Lorin for making this trip so much fun and for taking some amazing pictures

More pictures can be viewed at

https://picasaweb.google.com/1149702...February122016



Some pictures:



We salute the Salt Lake City Inversion