The Panamint kangaroo rat is considered medium-sized for its genus. It is pale clay-colored with blackish patches around the face. The tail is extremely long, on average 140% of its body length and contains a white stripe with a heavy tuft of hair at the end. The species is named after an area of its range in the Panamint Valley and Panamint Range Mountains just west of Death Valley. Their common name derives from their bipedal form. They morphologically adapted to use bipedal hopping as their primary means of locomotion.