Argument in favor of addition to the list:
Canyon Peak, (5,890 ft), is an impressive. highpoint located in Death Valley between unlisted Hunter Mountain and our listed peak, Panamint Butte, ten miles away. The new 7-1/2 minute topo map, Canyon Pk, is named from this landmark. It overlooks Cottonwood Canyon and is easiest approached from near Stove Pipe Wells. When one can drive to the end of the Cottonwood Canyon road, the peak is a 3 mile / 3,000 foot climb by the easiest route. The exploratory trip was led as a backpack from near Hunter Mtn through a wonderful desert wilderness, home of bighorn sheep, mustangs, deer and burros. We camped at Cottonwood Springs, lying 2200 feet and 3-1/2 miles south of Canyon. Panamint Butte can be coupled with Canyon Peak from the spring. The springs make an excellent basecamp with hundreds of large cottonwoods and a year around spring flowing 1000 gallons an hour. Campfires are allowed. The entire area is remote, seldom visited and pristine and Canyon Peak is a significant highpoint with great views. There were 6 people on our scheduled trip in 1989 and there was a consensus opinion that this peak's attributes warrant its being on the DPS List. The trip and peak were described in the July 1989 SAGE.
---Steve Smith/ Ron Jones.
| Feb. 23, 1990 | Fellow Hikers: |
Yes, let's delete Navajo from our list. There are two reasons for this. First, the Navajo Nation refuses permission for official climbs (Bill T. Russell had this experience) and we should not be climbing it without official permission. Second, the distance is so great (1,166 miles round trip from Los Angeles), and when you get there, if you have a 4WD you can drive to the top. So it is a drive-up but the drive there is very unreasonable, it uses up somuch gas that it is extremely wasteful. I have not climbed Navajo yet, but I will not enjoy driving way over there and then trespassing where I am not wanted. I know it is a beautiful and historic area, but that can be said of many places between here and the east coast.....
And we should delete Maturango from the list too. At present we cannot get permission to climb this peak and we should not encourage trespassing. The View from the top of this peak includes military installations and a nearby peak also has military installations; furthermore, our vehicles are left parked illegally at a trailhead inside the U.S. Naval Base. We can easily find another challenging peak in this area and replace this problematic one. (We need not deletion Argus since that climb involves very little trespassing, the vehicles can be left in legal trailheads, and such trespassing is accepted locally. Hiking Maturango is a a very different order of trespassing.
We should not be afraid to change our list, and that means deleting peaks as well as adding them. The passage of a Desert Bill, and the form it finally takes, may mean reconsideration of many of our peaks for reasons of access so we might as well start thinking about revisions to the list now.