Titus Canyon offers expansive views of desert, mountains

An adventurous one-way entrance into Death Valley, Titus Canyon provides glimpses of the national park's geological and cultural past. The 28-mile scenic route attracts both motorists and experienced mountain bikers. It tops a pass with panoramic views, passing a ghost town, before winding down into a narrow, flood-cut canyon walled by steep cliffs.

The road through Titus Canyon begins just outside the national park boundary in Nevada on Highway 374, the Daylight Pass route to Death Valley from Beatty. To reach it, follow U.S. 95 northwest 116 miles to Beatty. Turn at a stoplight onto Highway 374. Drive southwest six miles to the Titus Canyon road, passing the spur road to old Rhyolite, one of the areas's most famous ghost towns.

The National Park Service recommends using a high-clearance vehicle for the Titus Canyon road. Usually, two-wheel drive vehicles manage well, although four-wheel drive capability may be needed following storms. If rain threatens, stay off this road as it may suffer damage from flash floods. Flash flooding last closed the Titus Canyon road for several months following a January storm in 2006.

Look for evidence of the violent floods that carved Titus Canyon as you drive through narrow portions of the road, in some places wide enough for only one car. Flood debris caught on cliff ledges sits high above the roadbed. Take note of gleaming rock surfaces polished smooth by scouring floodwaters.

Plan to start your trip with the sun at your back as you head west toward the mountains. Pick the smoothest way over the corrugated surface as the rough road climbs steeply with switchbacks to reach a summit at 5,200-foot Red Pass. Pull over here to enjoy the expansive views of desert and mountains, for soon enough the distant views disappear when the road plunges into depths where the sun seldom reaches.

Soon after leaving the summit, the road passes the ruins of old Leadfield, site of a minor mining boom and a major mining scam in the mid-1920s. Remnants of abandoned equipment, weathered walls and dugouts mark the town that lives only a year. Hard to imagine surviving the unrelenting summer heat in such an oven.

Although lead and copper claims did exist, promoter C.C. Julian promised riches beyond all indications to the greedy and gullible willing to invest in his mining scheme. Fliers even showed the would-be millionaires arriving in the area aboard a steamboat plying the Amargosa River, that mostly underground flow that courses through Beatty and ends up in Death Valley at Badwater. Predictably, the promoter disappeared with the investment capital, leaving Leadfield to die. The investors cut their losses and left the town to scavengers who hauled away anything useful.

The road descends into the narrow defile of Titus Canyon, where steep rock walls record a chaotic geological past. At one point a sign indicates a gigantic wrinkle in the stone where natural forces of mountain building stretched the rock and doubled it back upon itself like layers of candy at a monumental taffy pull.

In the heat of the canyon, tiny Klare Spring creates a miniature oasis. The spring still provides water vital to area wildlife and fosters vegetation to feed and cover. Ancient native people frequented this spring on nomadic hunting and gathering forays. The early visitors left marks of their passing with petroglyphs, symbols incised upon rock faces near the flow of life-giving water, perhaps as marks of respect and appreciation.

Travelers emerge from Titus Canyon into the sunlight on an alluvial fan overlooking the length of Death Valley. As motorists continue down the canyon, they often encounter hikers heading up the canyon. Parking in an area near the mouth of the canyon, hikers also access the challenging route into nearby Fall Canyon, another narrow defile in the dark mountains. From the mouth of Titus Canyon, the road carries two-way traffic. It exits on the main paved route through the park between Scotty's Castle and Furnace Creek Ranch.

Margo Bartlett Pesek's column appears on Sundays.