Titus Canyon

Denis & Sandi Inman

Promptly at 8:00 AM, 4 Jeep Wranglers and a Toyota 4Runner headed for Eddy World to begin a Titus Canyon run. I was flying solo as was Patty. Bruce & Cathy, James & Helen and Ed & Mary Lou came with us from Pahrump, Clint & Cheryl met us on the trail in their Wrangler. After topping off our tanks in Beatty, we traveled West on Nevada Highway 374 to the trailhead to air down.

Driving into the Grapevine Mountains and over White Pass, we entered upper Titanothere Canyon and climbed the switchback road on the West side. Our group took a break at 5250′ Red Pass and had lunch at Leadfield. The ancient graffiti adjacent to the Petroglyphs sign was vandalized to the point that almost none of the Native American etchings at Klare Spring were visible. We were unable to spot any bighorn sheep that are known to frequent the spring.

The entire road had been recently graded smooth by the Park Service so the trail was not challenging in any way, but the scenery was as awesome or even more so than many of the trails we drive. Most of the participants stayed in the park for a while and took the shorter route home via Furnace Creek, Zabriskie Point and Death Valley Junction. I wanted to avoid the tourist attractions and exit California as soon as possible so I headed for Daylight Pass and Patty followed me.

We were back in Pahrump at about 3:00 after a nice Saturday drive in the park.