Last Updated on: 16th October 2024, 01:10 pm
The Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike is arguably the quintessential Death Valley hike. Over the course of a few hours, it takes you through the harsh and lifeless – yet stunningly beautiful – desert scenery that most people associate with the National Park. But in true Death Valley fashion, the hike can get extremely hot, so you’ll have to take proper precautions and plan accordingly.
In the following guide, we’ll be covering everything you need to know to prepare for the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike, along with a step-by-step description of the hike itself.
For more info on Death Valley accommodation and other helpful tips, be sure to check the very end of the article.
About This Hike
THE BASICS: The Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike can either be done starting from the Golden Canyon parking lot (situated along Badwater Road) or from Zabriskie Point (situated along Highway 190).
Furthermore, you have the option of doing the loop in either direction. But in the guide below, we’ll be covering the hike going counterclockwise from the Golden Canyon parking lot.
The route described below adds up to about six miles. And all in all, it took me about 3.5 hours to complete. While I skipped the Zabriskie Point detour, I did take the Red Cathedral detour near the end.
RECOMMENDED APPS: I used AllTrails for this hike. However, the only version of the trail they have also includes the additional walk to or from Zabriskie Point, which I ended up skipping.
For this particular hike, you should also be fine with Organic Maps, a free app which works offline. But it would be wise to study the trail and choose your exact route beforehand.
Generally speaking, for those who’ll be doing lots of hiking throughout the region, you’ll definitely want to have a subscription for either AllTrails or onX Backcountry.
STAY SAFE: If it weren’t for the heat, the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike could be categorized as easy, as it’s mostly flat and without too many obstacles.
But due to the extreme heat – especially by the end of the hike for those starting in the morning – it should be categorized as moderate. And for those who start too late and/or don’t bring enough water, it could even potentially be life-risking.
If you’re hiking during a hotter month, you will definitely want to start this hike early in the morning, especially considering how things don’t always cool down until well after dark. Learn more about this below.
WHAT TO BRING: As mentioned, the heat is the main thing you need to worry about for this hike, so be sure to bring as much water as you can comfortably carry. As the hike is relatively flat and not terribly long, you won’t really feel like you’re weighing yourself down by bringing a lot.
Trekking poles are unnecessary, but decent hiking shoes would be helpful. It should go without saying, but a hat and sunscreen are a must. Learn more packing tips in our Death Valley Packing List.
Gower Gulch
As mentioned, there are a few different ways to do this loop hike. One option is to park at the Golden Canyon parking lot, situated along Badwater Road, and do the full hike either clockwise or counterclockwise.
During the hike, you also have the option of taking an extra detour up to Zabriskie Point. On that note, you could also start the hike from Zabriskie.
If you’re traveling with others who don’t plan on doing this hike, you could also start from Badwater Road and have someone pick you up at Zabriskie Point (or vice versa).
You will also see many people simply doing the Golden Canyon on its own as an out-and-back hike. But that would only be ideal for those who just have a day in Death Valley.
In my case, I started and finished at the Golden Canyon parking lot, doing the loop counterclockwise. And that’s the route we’ll be covering below.
Starting counterclockwise means you’ll be beginning with Gower Gulch. While the entrance to Golden Canyon is right in front of the parking lot, to get to Gower Gulch, you’ll want to turn right, walking parallel to Badwater Road.
While not obvious at first, you should spot a faint dirt trail.
In my case, while a few people had arrived at the parking lot around the same time as me, they headed straight into Golden Canyon.
As such, by starting early in the morning and beginning with Gower Gulch, there’s a good chance that you’ll be alone for the majority of the hike.
Eventually, you’ll encounter a large wash, formed over the years due to infrequent but incredibly powerful flash floods. And it’s here that you’ll want to turn left, entering Gower Gulch.
It’s a bit of a rocky and uneven climb to get in, but nothing too challenging if you’re watching your step. And once inside, much of the gulch is flat and smooth.
Beginning this hike at around 6:30 in the morning in late June, it was still a comfortable temperature, hovering in the 80s °F. But it would get significantly hotter by the time I finished the hike a few hours later.
As mentioned, I did the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike counterclockwise. But whichever section you start with in the morning, you’ll be walking directly into the sun.
All in all, Gower Gulch is more scenic than Golden Canyon, but the lighting is very harsh in the morning, and you’ll have to constantly turn around to enjoy the best views.
While I still liked being able to avoid the crowds by doing the hike this way, you might also want to consider doing it clockwise.
While you will encounter a few more rocky and slippery portions, you’re unlikely to find any serious challenges in Gower Gulch. The heat aside, this is a rather relaxing hike, as it will likely be just you and this bizarre landscape in total silence.
As you’ll notice, while there’s a wide variety of colors here, you won’t encounter a single trace of green.
Even when hiking on a hot and dry day, everywhere you look shows clear evidence of the incredible power of moving water. This is somewhat ironic, as Death Valley is widely regarded as one of the driest places on earth.
But it does occasionally rain here. And with nothing to stop or absorb the flowing water, even a brief rain can result in a powerful and oftentimes dangerous flash flood. As such, the landscape is always in flux..
For those doing this loop hike counterclockwise, you’ll eventually encounter Gower Gulch Junction, which offers a ‘shortcut’ to Golden Canyon. But be sure to ignore it and continue walking east towards Zabriskie Point.
If you were to take this alternative path, you’d end up missing the Badlands Loop – arguably the most scenic portion of this entire hike.
Somewhat confusingly, it seems that the main trail east of this point is simultaneously the Badlands Loop while also still being part of the longer Gower Gulch Trail.
As you continue east, your surroundings will become more and more colorful as you gradually make your way into the Badlands. Eventually, the Gower Gulch path will come to an end and you’ll have to make a decision.
One option is to hike all the way up to Zabriskie Point, which would entail a significant uphill climb to get to the overlook. Of course, if you’re not meeting someone there, you’d then have to climb back down to complete the full Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike.
Or, at the Zabriskie Point Junction, you could simply opt to head directly toward Golden Canyon instead. Already having been to Zabriskie Point multiple times, I decided to skip it on this day.
The Badlands
As mentioned, at the Zabriskie Point Junction, I decided to walk in the direction of Golden Canyon rather than make the steep uphill climb to Zabriskie Point. That overlook, of course, is easily accessible by car for those entering or exiting the park via Highway 190.
Looking at some of the onlookers atop the hill, they seemed visibly confused to see me appear out of nowhere. Not everyone realizes that the surreal landscape you see from Zabriskie Point is indeed hikeable.
This general area is referred to as Death Valley’s Badlands. And by heading back west toward Golden Canyon from Zabriskie Junction, you’ll end up completing the Badlands Loop.
While a relatively short portion of this overall hike, it’s easily the most impressive. And as opposed to Gower Gulch and Golden Canyon, the trail here allows you to enjoy your surroundings from a higher vantage point.
Many of the rocky areas of Death Valley – and particularly the Badlands – are striped. Believe it or not, what’s now Death Valley was once entirely submerged underwater.
And over time, new layers of sediment were gradually deposited on the sea floor, eventually hardening and forming stripes.
The land was then brought up to the surface due to uplift. And as you’ll notice, many of the stripes now appear tilted and stretched, hinting at what incredibly powerful forces were once at play here.
As you walk along the trail, you’ll get to enjoy spectacular views of Manly Beacon, the prominent outcrop seen from Zabriskie Point. It was named after William L. Manly, who’s best remembered for guiding a group of 49ers crossing Death Valley to safety.
While Manly Beacon is the most prominent landmark viewable from the famous overlook, it’s incredible being able to see it from this close up. To the right of it, meanwhile, is another well-known formation known as the Red Cathedral.
The trail here twists and turns, eventually taking you down into the wash. Fortunately, there are occasional markers with arrows pointing you in the right direction. But it’s always helpful to have a navigation app handy as well (Google Maps will not suffice).
At different points in its history, Death Valley was submerged by an ancient sea, and much more recently, by a freshwater lake.
Referred to as Lake Manly by geologists (after the same Manly mentioned above), it eventually dried up around 10,000 years ago – very recent in geological terms.
The Badlands are said to have been part of Lake Manly’s original lakebed, as they’re largely comprised of mudstone. And this uplifted mudstone is now subject to erosion from wind and the occasional powerful flash flood.
The trail will eventually take you out of the wash and back to higher elevation. One particularly dramatic section takes you along a mudstone ridge which culminates in an outstanding view of the Red Cathedral.
The Red Cathedral is a large reddish formation that looms over the Badlands. And some of the rocks have been eroded in such a manner that they do indeed resemble European Gothic cathedrals – at least with a bit of imagination.
The reddish hue, meanwhile, is likely the result of the mineral hematite present in the rock.
After admiring the views, you should then find a trail taking you downhill again. And the next thing you know, you’ll be standing inside Golden Canyon.
Golden Canyon
Once in the Golden Canyon, you have the option of turning left, heading west and back toward the Golden Canyon parking lot. Or you could turn right, taking a detour down the Red Cathedral Path.
The Red Cathedral Path is generally meant for people doing the Golden Canyon as its own out-and-back hike. I’d tried it during a previous visit, but I ended up confused about the trail’s ending, as it seemed to just take me to a dead-end without any great views of the formation.
And so, on a whim, I decided to take the detour again, wondering if there was something that I perhaps missed during my earlier visit.
But no – I reached the same dead-end as before. Reading other reports online, you’re apparently supposed to scramble up the rocks here. But it was terribly steep and slippery at the time of my visit.
And given how it was starting to get really hot by this point in the morning, I decided to head toward the parking lot.
While I can’t confirm exactly how things look for those who scramble up the steep rock, I can’t imagine it being a better view than the vantage point from the Badlands pictured above.
Golden Canyon is indeed pretty (and golden), but it can’t quite compare to either the Gower Gulch or the Badlands portions of the loop hike. But as it’s the flattest and easiest portion of the hike, it’s a nice way to end it after the temperature has risen.
By this point in the morning, it was already over 100°F. While not nearly as hot as it can get in Death Valley, I’d already been hiking for a few hours and I began to feel like I was hiking through an oven.
On that note, it was here that I finally encountered other hikers, and hardly any of them were carrying water!
Surely, they were only doing the Golden Canyon as a short out-and-back hike, but it was still dumbfounding to see.
Who really knows – perhaps people think not having water with them in such extreme heat makes them look cool. But it only reveals their lack of outdoor experience, not to mention common sense.
All in all, you’ll want to have at least three liters of water on you for the full Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike. And even more if possible, as it’s almost always better to have too much than not enough.
As mentioned, as long as you take proper precautions, this is a relatively easy and straightforward hike. And it’s also one of the most stunningly beautiful hikes you can experience in the Western US.
If you have the chance to spend more than a day in Death Valley, be sure not to miss it.
Additional Info
Many online sources will tell you that you can do the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike either early in the morning or late afternoon. And this may be true if you’re visiting in winter, early spring or late autumn – but not in summer.
I did this hike in summer, and throughout my stay in Death Valley, the evenings remained just as hot as midday. Sometimes the temperature would even go up a little bit in the late afternoon! And it would remain sweltering hot until well after nightfall.
While I’m not sure how common this is in summer, it wasn’t just limited to Death Valley, as I’d later experience the same phenomenon in Utah.
The weather may behave differently during your visit, but you likely wouldn’t know until getting there. If you’re visiting during a warmer month, I would only plan on starting the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike early in the morning and not at any other point in the day.
Of course, that means that you’d have to stay in the park the night before. And your only options would be a pricey hotel in Furnace Creek or staying at the nearby campsite. Learn more about both options just below.
If you’re visiting in summer, this might be a good hike to save for your final morning in Death Valley before heading out of the park when finished. Learn more in our comprehensive Death Valley itinerary.
As mentioned, if you plan on doing the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike, it’s best to start early in the morning – especially if you’ll be visiting during one of the hotter months. And to get an early morning start, you’ll need to stay in the park itself.
As we’ll cover shortly, there are indeed hotels in Furnace Creek (Death Valley’s central ‘town’), but they don’t come cheap. If you’re not willing to splurge, that leaves camping as the only other option.
While Death Valley is home to numerous campsites, the most central of them is located right in Furnace Creek near the Visitor Center. I spent a night there and it only cost $22 per night. But there are a couple of important points to keep in mind.
First of all, the campsites lack showers. So if you’re hoping to shower after a long day, your only option will be to buy a pool pass from one of the Xanterra hotels which will grant you access to their showers. But at the time of writing, these passes go for a whopping $14 per person per day!
And if you want to eat at a restaurant within the park instead of cooking at your campsite, you’re going to spend more than double what you would at a restaurant in a nearby city.
Another issue to consider when camping is that it can sometimes get extremely windy without warning in the desert. And the ground is so hard at the lower elevation campsites that you can’t use your tent stakes.
If you have an RV, of course, some of the issues above can be averted. (If you don’t have your own, consider renting one on a site like Outdoorsy.)
Despite all of these issues, I still found spending a simultaneously hot and windy night in a tent was worth it in order to do the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike, one of the park’s best.
If you’ll be doing other hikes in Death Valley such as Telescope Peak, there are other campsites closer by that are at a much higher elevation and therefore similar to your typical mountain camping experience.
Figuring out where to stay for your Death Valley trip can be stressful and challenging. Given the park’s massive size, the most convenient base would be at one of the hotels within the park itself. Especially if you plan on doing the Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop Hike.
Unfortunately, however, all of the hotels and restaurants within Death Valley are owned by the Xanterra Corporation and they don’t come cheap. The different options include The Ranch, The Inn at Death Valley and The Oasis.
As mentioned, to do the hike mentioned above, you should definitely stay within the park the night before. So if you don’t have the budget to splurge on those hotels, your only other option will be to spend a night at the Furnace Creek campsite.
But what if you’re doing a longer trip? During other nights, depending on what you have planned, you should be fine staying somewhere outside of the park. Let’s take a look at the best bases situated outside of Death Valley, all of which are located in Nevada.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas isn’t ideal for those doing longer adventures in the park. But if you only have a day in Death Valley, it serves as a fine base. The city is about two hours one-way between the city and the eastern pay station.
Tourists into gambling, nightlife and an all-around typical Las Vegas experience tend to stay on or near the Strip. This area is home to a myriad of hotels and casinos, many of which are household names, such as Mandalay Bay or Luxor.
Las Vegas, however, is a fast-growing city with new residential areas being built each year, and much of the greater metropolitan area feels surprisingly normal.
Some good choices outside of the strip area include Tahiti All-Suite Resort, South Point Hotel or Aloft Henderson, just to name a few.
Pahrump
The small city of Pahrump is arguably the best base for Death Valley. It’s right in between Las Vegas and the park, or an hour each way from either.
It has lots of shopping and restaurant options, while many of the local casinos also feature hotels. My only experience was at the Saddle West Hotel Casino. While the rooms were nothing special, they did have all of the essentials and were reasonably priced.
Beatty
Beatty, Nevada is another convenient base for Death Valley, being only 50 minutes from Furnace Creek. Compared to Pahrump, however, it’s harder to reach for those coming from afar.
All in all, Beatty is much more charming than Pahrump but it also has fewer shopping and dining options. I stayed once at the Exchange Club Motel, which was fine as far as motels go. It seems to be run by the same management as the nearby Death Valley Inn (not to be confused with The Inn at Death Valley inside the park).
At the time of writing, Death Valley costs $30 to enter (learn more here).
If you’re visiting from abroad, note that in contrast to many other countries, US parks typically charge per vehicle rather than per person. However, if you’re traveling by bicycle instead, they’ll charge you for an individual pass which costs $15, while those on motorcycles will be charged $25.
Considering how many National Parks and National Monuments there are to see in the Southwest alone, the best option for most will be to buy an ‘America the Beautiful’ Annual National Parks Pass.
These cost $80 for the year. In most cases, you’re already saving money by just visiting four National Parks/Monuments anywhere in the country within a full year.
What’s more, is that only one person in your vehicle needs to have the pass. Additionally, seniors can buy the pass for just $20. So if you have someone over 62 in your party, just have them get the annual pass and everyone else will be set.
As for where to get the pass, you can purchase it in person at most National Parks or Monuments. But you can also order it in advance online.
Interested in exploring Death Valley further? The following guides will tell you everything you need to know in order to plan an unforgettable trip:
- Top 5 Things to Do in Death Valley
- An Unforgettable Death Valley Itinerary: From 1-5 Days
- Death Valley: The Ultimate Packing List
Also be sure to check out our guides to specific parts of the park: