How to Hike the Golden Canyon, Gower Gulch, and Badlands Loop Trails in Death Valley National Park

Many people who visit Death Valley stop at Zabriskie Point, admire the sweeping badlands landscape for a few minutes, and then move on. But one of the best hikes in the park begins right below the overlook, taking you into the maze of colorful ridges and winding canyons that make this area so famous.

There are actually multiple different trails in this area: the Badlands Loop, Golden Canyon, and Gower Gulch Loop are all distinct trails. If you want something shorter, you can absolutely just do an individual trail. But if you have the time and energy, there are multiple ways to connect them to make a longer, more varied loop.

I ended up connecting all three trails (plus an additional, very cool spur trail) to do one big loop. It was a fantastic hike that took me through a variety of different landscapes. You’ll hike along narrow badlands ridges, descend into deep desert canyons, walk through wide washes, and scramble over rocky sections of trail. It ended up being one of my favorite hikes in Death Valley.

Let’s discuss all the options for hiking trails, as well as the exact route I followed.

Trail Options

To start, here’s a map of the different trail options and how they intersect:

This is the full loop that I did, with each trail section marked out.

I’ll also mention here that there are two trailheads you can use for this hike: Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon Trailhead. Overall, I would say more people use the Golden Canyon trailhead, and if you’re only doing that part of the trail, certainly this makes the most sense. Likewise, if you only want to do the Badlands Loop, Zabriskie Point is definitely the trailhead you would use.

Here’s another map from the National Park Service that illustrates the different parts of the trail.

Now let’s talk about the options within this hiking area.

Option 1: Golden Canyon

🚶 Distance: 2–2.8 miles round trip, depending on how far you go
🥾 Elevation Gain: ~300 feet
⏱ Time: 1–1.5 hours
📈 Difficulty: Easy–Moderate

Golden Canyon is the most popular and easiest hike in this area. The trail follows a wide wash through tall golden walls, gradually climbing deeper into the canyon.

This option is great if you’re short on time or hiking with kids, since the grade is gentle and the trail is easy to follow. You can hike as far as you like before turning around. The turnoff to Red Canyon is a natural stopping point (2 miles round trip), though many people continue all the way to the base of Manly Beacon (about 2.8 miles round trip).

Option 2: Golden Canyon + Gower Gulch Loop

🚶 Distance: 4.3 miles
🥾 Elevation Gain: ~800 feet
⏱ Time: 2–3 hours
📈 Difficulty: Moderate

This loop combines the wide canyon scenery of Golden Canyon with the more rugged terrain of Gower Gulch. After hiking up Golden Canyon, the route loops back through a narrower canyon with some fun rocky sections and light scrambling.

It’s a great moderate hike that shows off two very different landscapes in the same area.

Option 3: Red Canyon Spur

🚶 Distance: 1 mile round trip
🥾 Elevation Gain:
⏱ Time: 30-40 minutes
📈 Difficulty: Easy, some light scrambling at the end

Red Canyon is a short but very cool detour that branches off the Golden Canyon trail. The canyon narrows as you hike deeper in, and the final section involves a bit of easy scrambling before ending at a tall cliff face.

It’s a fun little side adventure that is well worth including if you’re already hiking in the area.

Option 4: Badlands Loop

🚶 Distance: ~2.7 miles
🥾 Elevation Gain: ~600 feet
⏱ Time: 1.5–2 hours
📈 Difficulty: Moderate

The Badlands Loop starts from Zabriskie Point and explores the colorful hills and ridges that you see from the overlook. The trail climbs and descends along narrow badlands ridges with fantastic views of Manly Beacon and the surrounding formations.

This route is more exposed than Golden Canyon, but the scenery is spectacular and the constantly changing ridgeline views make it visually very interesting.

Option 5: Full Loop (My Route)

🚶 Distance: 7.8 miles
🥾 Elevation Gain: ~900 feet
⏱ Time: 3–4 hours
📈 Difficulty: Moderate

If you have the time and energy, this full loop is the best way to experience the entire area. By linking the Badlands Loop, Golden Canyon, and Gower Gulch trails together (with the optional Red Canyon spur), you’ll see nearly every landscape this part of Death Valley has to offer.

Let’s get into the full trail breakdown of the big loop:

Full Trail Overview: My Route

1️⃣ Zabriskie Point Connector

I started this hike at Zabriskie Point just after sunrise. Watching the sunrise from the overlook is already one of the best things to do in Death Valley, and starting the hike right afterward means you get to head straight into the landscape you were just looking at from above.

You can absolutely start this loop from the Golden Canyon trailhead instead, but I loved doing it this way. There were a lot of people at the overlook for sunrise, but almost no one on the trail once I started hiking.

The connector trail from Zabriskie Point is about half a mile long and quickly drops down into the badlands, weaving through sandy washes between the tall hills. It’s a very pretty start to the hike.

From here, you connect with the Badlands Loop.

2️⃣ Badlands Loop

Once you reach the Badlands Loop, you can choose to hike it either clockwise or counterclockwise. I ended up going counterclockwise. From reading reviews and looking at the trail map, it seemed like the steeper, gravelly sections would be uphill going this direction, and I’d personally rather go up than down on steep, loose terrain.

This section of the trail is absolutely spectacular. The path winds along the ridges of the badlands, following the natural curves of the hills. The views are incredible the entire time, including views of Manly Beacon, the jagged peak you see from Zabriskie Point.

3️⃣Golden Canyon

The first part of the Golden Canyon trail continues through the Badlands hills, and soon takes you on a short, steep scramble to reach the ridge right under Manly Beacon. The section right under this cliff was probably my favorite part of the entire hike. From here, you get fantastic views of ridge after ridge of colorful, striated hills stretching out in front of you.

If you only do the Golden Canyon section of the hike, it’s worth it to go at least to the base of Manly Beacon. Likewise, if you only do the Badlands Loop, it’s worth doing the Golden Canyon spur just to reach this spot. Either way, it’s about an additional 0.8 miles to add to either of these trails.

From here, the trail begins descending through these colorful hills until you eventually reach the actual Golden Canyon and continue hiking through the wash.

4️⃣ Red Canyon Spur

Not long after starting the hike through Golden Canyon itself, you’ll reach the junction for the Red Canyon spur trail.

This is a short detour, but I thought it was well worth doing. The trail heads into a scenic canyon that narrows the farther you go, with tall red cliffs rising in front of you. Interestingly, the cliff walls here reminded me quite a bit of sections of the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park. The stone has a similar type of undulating, “petrified wave” look to it.

The final section of the spur involves some fun, easy scrambling through a narrow part of the canyon before the trail ends at the base of the tall red cliff face.

Overall, if you have the time and energy, Red Canyon is a very fun little side quest and a fun change of scenery before continuing on the main route.

5️⃣ Golden Canyon Again

After returning from Red Canyon, you’ll reconnect with the Golden Canyon trail.

From here on out, Golden Canyon feels quite different from the Badlands Loop section. Instead of narrow ridges and steep hills, the canyon opens up into a wider wash with tall, sloping walls on either side. The trail winds gradually through the wash, with lots of interesting textures and layers in the rock.

At this point I started seeing quite a few more people on the trail, including families and casual hikers. The incline here is fairly gentle and the canyon is overall very accessible, so it tends to be the busiest section of the hike.

Golden Canyon eventually leads to the Golden Canyon parking lot.

6️⃣ Gower Gulch & Finishing the Loop

The Gower Gulch canyon doesn’t directly connect to Golden Canyon. Gower Gulch is essentially the next canyon over from Goldn Canyon, and actually begins a short distance away. To reach it, you’ll follow a connecting trail for ~15 minutes that runs out across the open desert. During this stretch, you’re walking right next to the mountains and parallel to Badwater Road, so it definitely feels a bit more exposed compared to the canyons.

The first third of Gower Gulch was actually one of the funnest sections of the entire loop. The canyon walls are tall and textured, and the canyon itself is much narrower. There are a few small scrambles over rocks that make the hike a little more adventurous and exciting.

After that, the upper half of Gower Gulch was probably the least interesting part of the hike for me. The canyon opens up into a wide gravel wash with smaller, more gentle, and less colorful badlands hills around you.

Eventually the trail reconnects with the Badlands Loop and then intersects with the Zabriskie Point connector trail, bringing you back up to the parking lot.

Direction and Timing Notes

Overall, this hike doesn’t have huge elevation gains or losses, and the direction you hike doesn’t matter all that much. The steepest sections do involve some loose gravel, but I encountered steep sections with gravel going up and going down. Thankfully, these were quite short and not terrible.

That said, I really liked hiking counterclockwise just for the views of the striated badlands hills under Manly Beacon. They were even better because the direction of the morning light was shining right on them, illuminating the colors beautifully, and I enjoyed walking towards those views.

There are quite a few spots where trails intersect on this route, and it’s helpful to have a map downloaded so you know which turns to take.

Planning a Road Trip? Here’s Where to Go After Death Valley

• Joshua Tree National Park: Admire the quirky Joshua Trees and scramble on all the boulder piles
• Valley of Fire State Park (NV): Visit the Fire Wave and the deep red mountains
• Red Rock National Conservation Area (NV): Great hiking opportunities just outside Vegas
• San Diego: Stop by beautiful Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo, go to the beach, visit Coronado Island, and so much more