Death Valley National Park - Natural Bridge Canyon Trail

The next stop on our February 2015 trip to southern California was the Natural Bridge Canyon Trail in Death Valley National Park. To reach the trailhead from the Furnace Creek area, drive south on Badwater Road for 13 miles from CA 190 then turn east onto the marked gravel road. Drive 1.5 miles to the parking area at the end of the road. A vault toilet is located at the southwestern corner of the parking area. While the park service does an excellent job of maintaining the facilities and roads in the park, some maintenance schedules may be longer than optimum for visitors. Due to the average 8% grade on the gravel road, the eastbound side has a pronounced washboard effect as the road climbs over 600 feet. While the uphill lane is still passable by any passenger vehicle traveling at a slow speed, most drivers we saw chose to drive on the less corrugated left (north) side of the road unless meeting a vehicle coming down the hill. Since almost the entire road is visible at all times, this does not seem to be a very hazardous situation. Given enough time without regrading, this behavior will eventually create a washboard on the north side of the road as well.

The trail up Natural Bridge Canyon is rated as an easy uphill walk through a narrow canyon by the park service. The trail climbs about 350 feet from the parking area to the rocky area where we turned around after walking ¾ mile. This is an average grade of about 8% on some packed, but mostly loose, gravel. Although the park service states the trail is 1 mile, my trail map and GPS both show the trail ending where we turned around. To proceed further requires scrambling over a sloping marble dry fall to continue up the canyon and didn't seem worth the effort.

The vertical clearance under Natural Bridge is about 45 to 50 feet near the center of the canyon. The rock in this area is sedimentary and not part of the metamorphic formation that forms the Black Mountains. This hike has plenty of shade, but the arid conditions still require you to carry and drink water on the route.

Trail topographic map

View of the trail from the parking area

Signs of erosion near the trail

A dry fall on the northwest side of the canyon

Natural Bridge from a distance

A closer view of Natural Bridge

View from beneath the bridge

Looking back down the canyon

The "wax drippings" on the left were created by water
rapidly evaporating as it drips down the canyon walls
and leaving behind the dissolved minerals

The trail continues beyond the bridge

A 25' dry fall on the southeast side of the canyon

A large fault created this "cave"

Once again, life is tenacious

Our definition of "end of the trail" is at this sloping marble dry fall

Returning back down the trail

A small side canyon to the north

The end of the small side canyon

Erosion has undercut the rock wall

Looking down the canyon through Natural Bridge

Another view of the Badwater Basin over 600' below and the Panamint Mountains

An entrance fee of $20 admits all the passengers of a single vehicle for seven days. Other options include an annual Death Valley National Park Pass for $40, an Interagency Annual Pass providing access to most national park, national forest and BLM fee areas for $80 and a lifetime Interagency Senior Pass for those age 62 and older for $10.

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm.