Paying a visit to Hungry Bill's Ranch had been sitting in the top ten of my Death Valley To-Do list for the past decade. The biggest problem for me had been the lack of a 4wd vehicle, which made getting through Johnson Canyon very difficult. On one of my Panamint City trips, I had hiked up to Panamint Pass and looked down at Hungry Bill's, which is the closest contact I'd ever had with the area. After talking with some people who were familiar with Johnson Canyon Road, I decided to give it a try in my trusty old Mazda pickup, which has made many trips to Death Valley in the past and not yet suffered a flat tire. I packed an extra full size spare just in case, and then headed down West Side Road and made the turn onto Johnson Canyon Road. Although I found the first 6 miles of the road passable, it's definitely not the type of dirt road I prefer driving on, as it was quite rough. Just prior to reaching the crest in the road, before it dips down into Johnson Canyon, I pulled over and parked my truck in a nice turn-out. From there, we would need to hike almost 4 miles to reach Wilson Spring, and nearly 2 more miles to reach Hungry Bill's. This hike would certainly have been a lot easier with the right type of vehicle, but we couldn't allow that hindrance to prevent us from making it to Hungry Bill's. Hiking through Johnson Canyon was relatively easy, as we were following the road. It was a bit steep, as we seemed to be gaining elevation at a good rate. Once we reached Wilson Spring, my sister Tiffany decided to relax there while Daria and I continued the hike to Hungry Bill's. I must say that it was a very enjoyable hike from this point on. One thing I liked about it is that there is a well defined trail to follow the entire way. This trail appears to be visitor maintained, and quite a bit of effort has been made by others to help you stay on the correct path. So I would like to offer my thanks to anybody who has ever contributed to this trail in the past. The trail leads you up from Wilson Spring through the narrows of Johnson Canyon. It crosses back and forth over the flowing spring once in a while, and helps you avoid the thick brush of the canyon by taking you up high on the hillside, which also means you have great views. We also found Hungry Bill's to be quite interesting, although I decided not to post all of our photos of the area. It seems to be a heavily visited area (as we saw quite a few other vehicles and people even though it was a weekday) and we think it's best for everybody to find out for themselves what can be seen along the trail and at Hungry Bill's. Just a side note, that I did continue for a short distance up canyon past Hungry Bill's and found making progress to be a total nightmare. The canyon is so overgrown and the trail basically ends at Hungry Bill's, so you won't catch me trying to hike up to Panamint Pass anytime soon.
Parking on a turn-out about 6 miles up Johnson Canyon Road. I'm not really sure how we managed to avoid getting any flat tires, because my truck wasn't made for this:
This is where the road drops into the wash of Johnson Canyon:
We found this classic car during the early part of the road hike:
The next three pictures show you some of the views we had while on the road portion of the hike, prior to reaching Wilson Spring:
About 1/2 mile before we arrived at the spring, the road turned very rough:
Wilson Spring appears in the distance:
The next four pictures show you the trees, greenery, and water of Wilson Spring:
After leaving Wilson Spring, a trail soon appears which makes navigating through the next spring relatively easy:
Now in the narrows of Johnson Canyon, the ground becomes overgrown with brush and flowing water:
The first of many stream crossings. This second spring is way prettier and more interesting than Wilson Spring:
Canyon walls were usually raised high on one side of the canyon or the other:
This was the first appearance of a rock wall, during the canyon narrows portion of the hike:
In this photo, you can see that the trail has taken us high up over the bottom of the canyon. It was a bit tiring, but worth it for the good views:
Steve's first ever time in Johnson Canyon and at Hungry Bill's later:
In the bottom left of the picture, you can see the trail that we were following over the canyon:
As seen in the next two pictures, there was quite a bit of water flow in the canyon:
There was also quite a bit of snow on the Panamint Mountains:
Three more pictures of the pretty falls, water, and greenery:
These bushes we hiked by were nasty with huge thorns ready to cut somebody's skin:
Rock walls started appearing regularly in the canyon as we approached Hungry Bill's:
Almost to Hungry Bill's now, it can be seen faintly in the picture:
There were some full sized trees along the way and at Hungry Bill's:
Zooming in on Panamint Pass off in the distance:
The gateway leading into Hungry Bill's Ranch:
View of the fence and rock wall which surrounds Hungry Bill's Ranch:
Looking over the rock wall into the orchard and grounds area:
Steve at Hungry Bill's Ranch:
These fruit trees don't look like much, but near one of them I found some apples which had fallen to the ground late last year. So obviously this place still has some trees which are alive and producing fruit at the right time of year:
View of the ranch from the other end looking back across:
Daria sitting on one of the rock walls. We don't recommend trying this because the rock walls are known to be a favorite place of the local rattlesnakes:
There were a couple of caves across the stream to check out:
View of the ranch area from up at the caves. There are a lot of other things to discover at Hungry Bill's, which I have left out of this report to maintain the element of surprise: