Explorations with the Ski3pins: Death Valley – April 2024

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Please click here for – Part One

The Fresh Vegetable Trail

During the heydays of Panamint City in the 1870’s a Swiss man named Johnson operated a fruit and vegetable ranch on the opposite side of the Panamint Mountains in the well-watered canyon that now bears his name. Johnson’s motive was to make money supplying these commodities to the hungry miners at Panamint City. And his route up and over Panamint Pass to Panamint City has been called “The Fresh Vegetable Trail.” Although it was used for only a few years in the 1870’s, we’ve heard that remnants of the old trail still exist. We wanted to find out for ourselves.

Here are two excerpts from the NPS history linked in Part One that describe the route, Johnson’s Ranch, and Hungry Bill’s –

“When Lieutenant Birnie participated in the Wheeler Survey of 1876 he and his companions took the trail leading from Panamint City across the Panamint Range east to Johnson Canyon:

The first portion of the descent to Death Valley by trail was very steep. In the canon through which we passed grass and a short running stream were found, also a small cultivated piece of ground where vegetables were raised with facility by irrigation.”

“In 1896 two "garden" areas within Death Valley were noted. The first described was in Johnson Canyon:

just over the summit, and southeast of Panamint, was "Johnson's garden" in the flush days of the rise and before the fall of Panamint. Here Indians Pete and George [Hansen?] are cultivating four or five acres of land. With immense labor they have cleared away the surface rocks, building huge walls for fences, and irrigating ditches from the large springs. March 31st alfalfa was four to six inches high: The grapevines hanging over a framework of poles, showed formed grapes in the verdure and the peaches appeared half formed. In their larder was found fine varieties of beans, wheat and corn. On the hillside George has graded away a large space, and has material on hand for a regular house.”

As always, we took in the early dawn at our camp.

We left camp at 0800 and headed back up Johnson Canyon to see what we could find of the Fresh Vegetable Trail.

Viewers who note details will see in the photos that cheat grass is now established in Johnson Canyon. The same is true for Greenwater Valley.

The Johnson Canyon gorge.

There are petroglyphs here.

The weather was quite different this day as we returned to Johnson’s Ranch/Hungry Bill’s

Fruit and nut trees remain at the ranch, most in very overgrown and poor condition. The figs were just beginning to leaf out. This apple tree was in full bloom and honey bees were busy.

We continued through and beyond the upper reaches of Hungry Bill’s.

And entered the rugged canyon above.

We were excited we were able to find that sections of the old trail remained in places on benches above the canyon wash. Most interesting was finding about 10 ancient axe cut stumps from pinyon pines and juniper that may have been removed to put in the trail.

On one bench far up canyon we came upon a used shelter and a supply cache from the mid 1900’s. I’m dating in around that time because of the Mirro Aluminum fry pan.

The upper canyon became so steep the only way to continue was in the wash.

Digonnet’s description of the upper canyon to Panamint Pass:

“The hiking is strenuous, along a steep boulder-strewn wash. You will eventually run into a trail on the right side, a remnant of the ‘fresh vegetable route.’ Its tight switchbacks climb all the way to Panamint Pass, offering increasingly fine views of the surrounding forested peaks. From Wilson Spring to the pass it is only 5.5 miles, but the going is so rough that the round trip takes a long day.”

Digonnet’s description comes from before the washes were scoured and ripped apart in the hard storms over the last two years. The going is now rough, indeed. In many places the gorge is choked with downed trees and debris. And as Digonnet states, it is steep.

As we ascended, I marked three waypoints so we could judge time and distance covered. Up and down, over, under, and around, climbing steep loose rock, was slowing us to a crawl. The thickets and loose rock were also inflicting damage.

It was frustrating because we both had excellent reserves of strength and ability but the day was just not long enough. We stopped for a break at 1300 and reassessed. It was time to turn around, but we knew those switchbacks on the right were just ahead. It was a difficult decision. We should have left camp at 0600.

We started back down.

I should note the photos are of the easy places, where I could stop, stand, and take a photo.

We were back at Wilson Spring in the late afternoon.

I should also note there was no sign of anyone else in Johnson Canyon during our stay, just the way we like it.

As we sat together outside having our dinner, the Lady said, “You know I absolutely love this, our adventures, staying out alone in remote places. I love this. I love spending all day hiking hard and exploring. I’m really bummed we didn’t make Panamint Pass, but this was a great day, a really great day.”

We climbed up on the hillsides in the evening to join the chukars. The limestone was remarkable.

The flowers were incredible and covered the hillsides.

Notched-leaf Phacelia (Phacelia crenulata)

Desert Pepperweed (Lepidium fremontii) was also a new flower for us.

The hedgehogs were also flourishing.

We woke the next morning after a wonderful quiet night. The chukars would not allow us to sleep in – but of course that would be a rare occurrence anyway. We wandered up canyon with our coffee as dawn broke. The Lady spotted a possible shelter site high up in a cliff band and insisted we needed to check it out.

She also insisted we could drop down directly to the truck.

I offered a route that would take us down above Charlie Wilson Spring.

We packed up in the early morning after breakfast. We were leaving Johnson Canyon. We came upon one jackass as we drove down the canyon. Only one of his ears were half chewed off. Although I really really wanted to, the Lady would not allow me to chase him down and bite off his other ear. I hate feral asses.

On the lower bajada before reaching West Side Road, we wandered among the incredible display of wildflowers.

Brittlebush and Beavertail Pricklypear (Opuntia basilaris)