Golden Canyon – Gower Gulch Loop
Furnace Creek, Death Valley NP · near Furnace Creek · California Desert
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 4.3 miles
- Elevation gain
- 675 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Nov–Mar (go at dawn even then; lethal May–Sep)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- $30/vehicle 7-day Death Valley NP entrance fee (card only). Day hikes need no other permit; overnight backcountry needs a free Recreation.gov permit.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Golden badlands · Manly Beacon · Red Cathedral spur · Twisting washes · 1880s borax relics
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Start at sunrise — the low sun sets the badlands on fire and you beat the heat. Carry far more water than feels necessary.
The guide
The single best introduction to Death Valley's badlands. You wind up a golden-walled canyon past the fin of Manly Beacon, detou…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Golden Canyon – Gower Gulch Loop — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.4207, -116.8467