Room Canyon is one of the best short canyon hikes in the park as it features towering pinnacles, colorful narrows, side canyon slot narrows, and an enclosed amphitheater which the canyon is named after.  Difficulties encountered on the hike include getting past one fairly easy boulder obstacle in the canyon and overcoming a dry fall that will stop some hikers at the end of The Room.  A topographical map of the hiking route can be found by clicking on the button above.  GPS coordinates for the parking area are 35.973591, -116.727818.  GPS coordinates for Room Canyon are 35.976688, -116.716026.

Room Canyon is a place that I have known about for a couple of years but never took the time to visit.  This was mostly because of being occupied with other hikes and also not knowing exactly where the canyon was located.  However, I finally had a chance to find and visit Room Canyon with some family members in March of 2012.  And I can tell you that it is an outstanding canyon quite different from any other canyons in the park.  Room Canyon has four significant aspects to it --  (1) It contains the tallest pinnacles in Death Valley, (2) It has a beautiful section of narrows made up of a rock type I haven't seen anywhere else in the park, (3) There are tight side canyon slot narrows to explore by way of a loop, and (4) The Room of Room Canyon is quite majestic to walk through and behold.  Room Canyon is a half-day hike that you can explore at a leisurely pace in order to enjoy all four of these aspects.  The pinnacles are extremely impressive to check out up close, but some scrambling is required in order to get to the base of them.  Room Pinnacle No. 2 is a bit reminiscent of the Panamint City smokestack, having a similar red color, a tall narrow height, and a crown on top.  I didn't have a chance to fully explore the side canyon slot narrows but what I did see of them was quite impressive.  They can be done as a loop with some basic route finding.  The main canyon narrows are even more spectacular.  At the end of the main canyon narrows, you walk into The Room, which is an enclosed area of towering walls.  As with other select canyons, I originally did not publish the exact location of Room Canyon at the request of NPS staff members.  The reason for this was it was felt that Room Canyon contains some fragile formations that should be properly protected from significant increased visitation by the general public.  However, the veil of secrecy is being lifted in 2015 and thus I have now included maps and GPS coordinates so that all future hikers may find Room Canyon and see it for themselves.  Essentially, Room Canyon is located just north of Foundry Canyon.  The parking areas for the two canyons are less than a half mile apart.  In order to make a full day of exploration, hikers may wish to explore both Room Canyon and Foundry Canyon at the same time.  Our hike took place on March 3, 2012.

Many more photographs taken during our visit are available for viewing for this destination.  To see all of them, choose one of the two options presented below.  The two options are Slideshow viewing and Trip Report viewing.  The Slideshow option allows for viewing larger images with an autoplay option and a full screen option (available on most browsers).  This option works very well for large computer screens and tablets.  The Trip Report option allows for viewing smaller pictures in a standard scroll-down format and enlarging of any panoramic photos taken during our visit.  Click on the option of your choice to view all of our photos from this destination.  The Slideshow format opens in a new browser window and the Trip Report format uses the same browser window for viewing.