Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2007: Death Valley National Park bikepacking / Day 6, morning: A walk down upper Monarch Canyon to Monarch Spring for drinking water 19
Dramatic views down into Death Valley from above the drop-off at the end of Monarch Canyon reward those who persist in pushing their way through the head-high grasses around the spring on the way there.
- Looking down Monarch Canyon from the drop-off at the end of the road by my campsite
Monarch Canyon drops off about 70 feet at the end of the road by my camp site. My walk starts here and goes downward. A narrow trail, which is apparently the remains of old mining road, leads downward on my left into the canyon. It's a bit chilly here, the sun having not been able to shine in and heat up the canyon yet. I see no trace of last night's brief rain storm. - At the bottom of the the drop-off in Monarch Canyon, I look back up the trail that I came down
The trail is that ledge of earth that rises in the centre-right of the photo. - Standing at the bottom of the first drop-off in Monarch Canyon
The road in Monarch Canyon above ends on top of the rock wall. A careless driver could drive right over the edge and land where I'm standing. - Interesting drainage erosion in Monarch Canyon just below the first drop-off
Death Valley is a common destination for geology field trips owing to features like this. - Another view of drainage and rock layers in Monarch Canyon
... just below the first drop-off. - A little further down Monarch Canyon
Some patches of "soil" are like hardened pavement or cement. - I pass the old Indian Mine site on the way down Monarch Canyon017-indian-mine
The Indian Mine mechanics are still here, and not too badly weathered, due to the dry climate, after 100 years or so. - Close-up of what remains at the old Indian Mine site
I wonder how long this will last here before it returns to the earth. - Descending Monarch Canyon beyond the Indian Mine site
According to my map, Monarch Spring is in the left corner of that yellowish area down below in the centre of the image. - Me, trying to figure out how to get through or around the thick brush that engulfs Monarch Spring
The grass is taller than me; I try to follow the faint tracks that I find here and there from people or animals who have been here before me. - I climb the rock wall a wee bit as I try to squeeze past and above the reeds
To get past the head-high reeds near the spring, one must squeeze through narrow spaces between the rock wall and the reeds, or climb over the rocks a little. The earth is wet and mushy in here, and there is sometimes water on the ground. I was afraid I that would sink in the mud when I couldn't stay on the steep rocks, but the reeds are so thick that they provide a layer on the ground that prevents me from sinking into the mud (if I walk fast enough). - You can't see it here, but there's a thin layer of water on the ground under all the grass
It's strange to walk through this because one can't see how much water is actually on the ground. The next footstep might be on a firm surface, or you might sink into mud or water. - Coming out of the reeds at Monarch Spring for a moment to look back up-canyon
I'm not finished walking through the reeds just yet and I'm wondering if there's more water in Monarch Canyon or if this is all there is. - Bushwhacking my way through more reeds
I'm starting to get used to walking through this tall stuff and am getting less prissy about it. Nonetheless, snakes, including rattlesnakes, sometimes like these moist areas, so it's important that I keep looking down as I make my way. - Once beyond the bushwhacking zone, I note that some of the brush looks greener than the rest
This slightly verdant area indicates the presence of a little stream running through it, which seems to exude from under all those reeds. Indeed, I hear a trickle of water amid the silence and locate it. There didn't seem to be much water on the ground around the spring that I identified, so it makes me wonder if perhaps there is a second spring further on under the reeds. - The end of upper Monarch Canyon overlooks Death Valley below
The end of upper Monarch Canyon drops off 100 feet or so into Death Valley below and the little spring-fed stream flows over the drop-off to make a tiny waterfall. The view across the Death Valley desert below is quite dramatic in the way it's framed by the steep walls of Monarch Canyon. - Looking down the 100-foot drop-off at the end of the Monarch Canyon
The stream is so minimal that the photo doesn't even pick up its presence trickling down over the rocks. I sit here for a while enjoying the silence and the views. - Having now seen the entire stream from Monarch Spring, I start walking back and stop at the best spot that I saw for pumping water
My chosen location is close to the end of the canyon, where the brush is low, and the stream at its widest and deepest. - The stream from Monarch Spring should provide fairly decent drinking water once filtered
The stream runs from two to eight inches in width and about six inches in depth at its deepest. It has a lot of algae on the surface, but the water underneath is clear and clean. I get out my water bottles one-by-one and slowly fill them with water pumped through my MSR water purifier. I perform a taste test on the filtered water and it's pretty good. I leisurely pump away as the sun beams down and starts to heat up the day, and me. I recognize a faint, musty odour in my surroundings that I can't immediately identify. As time passes, I conclude that it's most probably from diluted feces from bighorn sheep, which like to frequent desert water sources such as this. I'm not a big meat eater, but lamb is my favourite red meat, and the scent of lamb meat is unmistakable. I don't see any actual feces anywhere, but I do notice some soft earthy material on the ground that doesn't seem to be part of the hard earth layer beneath it. I haven't seen any bighorn sheep during this trip yet, but I did catch a glimpse of a few last year near Marl Springs in Mojave National Preserve. I'm content when my four 1.5-litre bottles are full of clean backcountry water and begin the hike back to my camp site. Passing through the area of head-high reeds around Monarch Spring is much easier on the return trip, now that I know how to get through it.