Leslie and David's Wanderings: 7 November 2019 Mosaic Canyon

The ranger in Stovepipe Wells ranger station recommended hiking Mosaic Canyon, which is not far from where we are parked in Stovepipe Wells. We got up early to do the hike before it got hot. We arrived at the trailhead for Mosaic Canyon at 8:30 while it was still cool. The Mosaic Trail ( 4.5 miles, 1,086 feet of elevation gain, 1,387 calories burned) has multiple obstacles that turn into turn around points depending on people’s abilities. As we hiked into the canyon, we could see why the canyon has its name. Sections of the walls are rocks of different sizes and colors that are cemented together by nature making you think of mosaic tile sculptures. Other places are polished marble in browns, blacks, whites and pinks. Beautiful. As we move up the canyon we come across slick pour off of polished marble. Each one becomes a bit more difficult to get over. Eventually we come to the first big obstacle, a boulder jam blocking the canyon. There was a side trail to take us around the blockage but it required a bit of rock climbing. Most people turn around here. Once above the boulder jam, there was a 5 foot tall, slick marble pour off. David scrambled up but Leslie decided that she did not want to risk sliding off and hurting her knee on this one or one of the ones further up the canyon. So David left the water with her and proceeded up canyon. The next slick rock pour off required climbing up ninja style. Eventually David came to the second dry waterfall and followed another side trail up and around it. Several more slick rock pour offs blocked the canyon but each had a side trail to get around it. One path was barely wide enough for David’s foot with a ten foot drop off. He came across a couple heading down canyon and asked them to tell Leslie that he was ok. A mile further up the canyon he came to the third dry waterfall. This was the end of the trail as there was no way around this one. Going down canyon was more fun than going up since those bypass trails look a bit more intimidating going down than up! Eventually David connected back up with Leslie and made our way out of the canyon. It’s a really cool canyon to hike.