Death Valley - Desolation Canyon

Red and yellow and pink and green,

Purple and orange and blue.

I can sing a rainbow,

Sing a rainbow,

You can sing one too!

Hi Blog!

After doing a lot of driving the previous day, we needed to get out and hike. On Monday, February 15, 2016, we decided to hike Desolation Canyon. We weren't sure what to expect. The only info we could find on the hike was pretty vague:

"Narrow canyon through colorful badlands. Follow old road and then main wash east continuing toward cliffs, then follow the wash draining from the south. Hike up canyon, keeping to the right at the forks. No trail."

The trailhead was easy enough to find. We began hiking up the old road and into the wash. It felt like we were hiking on another planet. The colorful badlands began to show their true colors.

Red:

Yellow:

Pink:

Green:

Purple:

Orange:

Blue:

We couldn't help but sing a rainbow as we hiked along. Here Kathy is feeling a bit yellow.

We did our best to stay right, but some of the side canyons called to us. Once we got back on track, we started gaining elevation. The trail description didn't say anything about climbing out of the canyon, but we soon found ourselves high atop the badlands.

From the height of land, we could look down upon Desolation Canyon.

Before heading back down, we took a 360 from the top. Click the link to see what we saw - Desolation 360.

We worked our way back down the canyon in hopes of finding a nice shady spot for lunch. But sometime you just have to sit down and take it all in.

After being surprised by how cool this hike was, we did a little Google search to see if we could learn a little bit about the area. Turns out, back around 1976, the sense of remoteness and desolation of this canyon, along with its unworldly scenery, brought a then little-known filmmaker here.  George Lucas was finishing up a movie that told an epic story he had written a few years earlier.  That movie was Star Wars.

After filming in England and Tunisia, Lucas was back in Hollywood and needed to shoot a few more scenes.  Along with neighboring Artists Palette and Golden Canyon, Lucas used Desolation Canyon for several scenes which appear in the first 20 minutes of Star Wars: A New Hope.  Remember when R2D2 and C3PO were roaming through a “desolate” canyon and the sequences of the alien Tusken Raiders?  In one scene, a Tusken Raider is riding a Bantha and Desolation Canyon is clearly visible in the background.

How cool is that? We actually hiked through the set of Star Wars! Looking forward to seeing what other cool places we can discover in Death Valley.