Hike Canyon Point from Cottonwood Canyon Death Valley National Park, CA

Apr 18, 2021 — Canyon Point is the high point of the mountains separating Marble Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon. These two canyons, when done as a loop, form a popular Death Valley backpacking trip, but it's never had much appeal to me because almost half of it follows the Cottonwood Canyon dirt road. Instead of the loop, simply reaching the high point seemed more my speed. We accessed the trailhead by driving Cottonwood Canyon Road. Head up Cottonwood Canyon Road here (36.63184, -117.29498). The road is great until about a mile before that point, and then it's overall not bad (some short sections where high clearance would be required) except for the last mile, which deteriorated significantly. You may have to hike an extra mile or two each way to reach the end of Cottonwood Canyon Road, depending on driving comfort level.

From the trailhead, we spent a few minutes poking around the pretty cottonwoods before starting up the route to Canyon Point. I recommend taking this extra time to enjoy the area since it's rare to find this much vegetation in Death Valley. The hike starts on the west side of Cottonwood Canyon at the end of the road, heading up a Class 2 set of easy switchbacks to get into a drainage. Once within the drainage, we continued west on lightly sandy and pleasant terrain. Canyon Point came into view after a mile or so, but we wouldn't be ascending directly to it. Instead, we headed south up the slope to reach the ridge. While steep, I think it's likely the best option for reaching Canyon Point from here. Continuing up the approach drainage would result in having to ascend steeper, sandier, or rockier terrain.

Once on the ridge, we headed west up easy Class 2 terrain on a somewhat steep slope, which brought us to the traverse to the summit. Significantly less steep than the lat half mile, the rest of the route to the summit was scenic and pleasant. A hump along the ridge is worth just going over rather than side-hilling. Large boulders near the summit add some fun Class 2. A Class 2+ summit block gave us some awesome views into Death Valley and toward the sweeping valley around Towne Benchmark.

The most fun part of the day came next. We dropped east off Canyon Point and desended the sandy and fun slope back into the main drainage we used to approach the peak. I highly recommend not ascending this way, but the descent was fast and exciting.