Corkscrew Peak

Corkscrew Peak 5804′
Desert Peak Section
Total Time: 3:45
Distance: 7.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 3100′
Crux: Class 1
Trailhead: Daylight Pass, no services

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My third and final day in Death Valley would be a short one- a quick climb of the relatively popular Corkscrew Peak before the long car ride home. Located just off Daylight Pass, the peak sees visitors almost daily in the winter with a well traveled use trail all the way to the summit. In an effort to try and make it home in time for dinner with the family, I started just before sunrise, parking at the Corkscrew Peak sign just below the pass. In the dark, I wandered around in the wash just below the road before picking up the use trail as it traveled over several shallow ridges to enter the much larger wash immediately north.

The early morning light was just starting to illuminate Corkscrew Peak, and I turned off my headlamp as I followed braided use trails through the large wash. I followed this for about 30 minutes before the wash significantly narrowed into a canyon, suddenly flanked by 20′ cliffs on either side. I assumed I would be following this for some time until spotting about 10 cairns marking a discrete turn off into a side canyon to the left.

Some minimal class 2 terrain brought me up onto a ridgeline running southeast off the summit, now glowing from the sunrise. Directly south was Badwater Basin and Lake Manly, still full of water from Hurricane Hilary the prior summer as well as the winter storm the week prior.

I continued along the ridgeline, taking a short break 1.5 hours in. The trail cut diagonally through a cliff band guarding a bump along the ridgeline, bringing me to the final push below the summit cliff bands. There was an obvious weakness in the summit rocks towards the northern end of the cliff band, and the trail steeply cut through the cliffs to a series of dramatic volcanic spires on the higher summit ridgeline, one of them with a cool natural window framing the mountains to the east.

I had thought the true summit was the bump just above the spires, but it was another 10 minutes further along the ridgeline to the north, topping out shortly after 8 AM. Despite being one of the easier summits of the trip, the views were some of the best, with the sun rising over the Sierra and Mount Whitney region to the west, Telescope Peak to the southwest, Death Valley and Lake Manley to the south, and the rest of the Grapevine Mountains to the north and east.

After a short break at the summit, I started back down the ridgeline, jogging most of the descent until back in the wash in less than an hour.

From the turn off, it was easy hiking through the wash and back to the car, getting back to the car in about 1:15 from the summit. I hopped in the car and made one last stop for a snack in Stovepipe Wells before cutting south into Panamint Valley for the long car ride home.