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Feb 27, 2020 — We parked off Badwater Road and headed north to the mouth of Coffin Canyon. A social trail leads up the steep ridge on the right of the mouth of the canyon, following the ridge more or less for the whole approach. There was a short Class 3 section on crumbly rock toward the start, but otherwise we just encountered a lot of Class 2 and 2+ as we headed up the ridge. The views west along the higher points of the ridge were really wonderful, Death Valley and Telescope Peak a pretty incredible contrast. A steep social trail led us down from the ridge and into the head of Coffin Canyon. As we followed the wash into Coffin Canyon, we noted a couple of colorful side canyons that I recommend checking out if you have some free time.
Some interesting eroded rock lined the sides of Coffin Canyon as it began to narrow. We had some fun down climbs (one may need to be rappelled) leading us down the wash. We stumbled onto the 190 foot drop, an incredible canyon view with mountains in the distance and Coffin Canyon continuing away from us among bright yellow rock. We took in the views for a minute and spent some extra time inspecting the anchor for this one. From the base of the big rappel, we continued down canyon, where a few short down climbs, narrow sections, and short rappels kept the canyon entertaining. Some things of interest were a really large chockstone hovering above a rappel, and a somewhat recent rockslide. Coffin Canyon began to open up into a wash, becoming more sandy, and we got to a final, straightforward 80 foot drop. Just after this rappel, Coffin Canyon opened up.
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