Remembering Suprise Canyon
Torxhead
Always Off-Roading Jeeper
Our clubs trip began after spending the night at the mouth of Suprise in the Panamint Valley just West of Death Valley National Park in Ca. The highlight of the trip was winching up seven rocky waterfalls in a span of about 100 yds in a narrow slot canyon with rushing water down it. From there it was about 5 miles of dirt road into the mining camp of Panamint City.
The winching work was quite a coordinated exercise where the leader used mostly fixed rocks as winch points and the "Crew" handled his cable work. Vehicles behind put their hooks on the rig in front of them and pretty much left them there. There was no need to spool up since the falls were so close together and the crew made sure no cables were run over.
The falls themselves were not that steep, just rocky and slippery due to the water running thru the canyon. It was not uncommon to see someone slip and fall in his rear. There were also horseflies tha
t had quite a bite especially if you were'nt expecting it.
The trail leader broke a rear axle on a Dana 44 and the semi floater held up into Panamint City and back to the mouth of
the canyon a couple of days later. When I got to fall #7, I saw a plume of smoke from the front of my rig when I hit the winch button, fortunatly there were vehicles on top to give me a t
ug up, my winch was toast. I didn't need it for the rest of the trip anyway. Another guy broke a clutch linkage pivot arm, but was able to make it to the top. The Hummer H1 that was with 
us smashed a door on his way up and smashed the oppisite door on the way down. I had also put a rock into a sidewall at the base of the falls.
From there it was a slow trip into Pana
mint requiring low range since it was so steep. We spent two more nights up there fixing stuff and sightseeing.
The trip down was a bit easier than going up. I was first to get lowere
d down fall #7 since it was the steepest and had the dead winch. From there I drove/slid down to the bottom.
Suprise Canyon was closed at the beginning of the century with just a str
oke of a pen. Many took the closure quite hard, there were a few attempts to get it reopened, But it is closed for good. I was fortunate enough to make it up there twice with quite simila
r results. There is still a bit of info out there like this:
panamint
And for history:
Panamint City, California - A Hard-Broiled Hell Hole
I'm sorry about the scattering of the pics, they just came out that way.
The winching work was quite a coordinated exercise where the leader used mostly fixed rocks as winch points and the "Crew" handled his cable work. Vehicles behind put their hooks on the rig in front of them and pretty much left them there. There was no need to spool up since the falls were so close together and the crew made sure no cables were run over.
The falls themselves were not that steep, just rocky and slippery due to the water running thru the canyon. It was not uncommon to see someone slip and fall in his rear. There were also horseflies tha
t had quite a bite especially if you were'nt expecting it.The trail leader broke a rear axle on a Dana 44 and the semi floater held up into Panamint City and back to the mouth of
the canyon a couple of days later. When I got to fall #7, I saw a plume of smoke from the front of my rig when I hit the winch button, fortunatly there were vehicles on top to give me a t
ug up, my winch was toast. I didn't need it for the rest of the trip anyway. Another guy broke a clutch linkage pivot arm, but was able to make it to the top. The Hummer H1 that was with 
us smashed a door on his way up and smashed the oppisite door on the way down. I had also put a rock into a sidewall at the base of the falls. From there it was a slow trip into Pana
mint requiring low range since it was so steep. We spent two more nights up there fixing stuff and sightseeing. The trip down was a bit easier than going up. I was first to get lowere
d down fall #7 since it was the steepest and had the dead winch. From there I drove/slid down to the bottom. Suprise Canyon was closed at the beginning of the century with just a str
oke of a pen. Many took the closure quite hard, there were a few attempts to get it reopened, But it is closed for good. I was fortunate enough to make it up there twice with quite simila
r results. There is still a bit of info out there like this:panamint
And for history:
Panamint City, California - A Hard-Broiled Hell Hole
I'm sorry about the scattering of the pics, they just came out that way.
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laying around for me to want to stay long.