Backpacker Magazine – April 2008

Quick Fix: Death Valley National Park

Badlands, peaks, wildflowers: Catch the best of the California desert with this trio of hikes.

by: Ann Wendland

Tags:
• Death Valley
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• Weekends
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• Adventures
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• California
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3 Hours | 5 Hours | 8 Hours

5 Hours
Hike the Valley's Badlands

Desert wildflowers come and go in early spring (call the hotline below to catch them), but badlands are forever. Actually, badlands is an insult to Death Valley's colorful, wildly shaped landscape of sand, clay, and rock. The five-mile Golden Canyon/Gower Gulch Loop (park two miles south of Furnace Creek) winds through rippled sandstone walls formed 10 million years ago, when shallow lakes covered the region. Take the half-mile detour to Red Cathedral's crimson cliffs, then resume the loop to the base of Manly Beacon, a rocky perch in the center of dusky folds undulating out in every direction. Return via Gower Gulch, slicing through the Artist's Palette formation of pink, red, green, and blue.

3 Hours | 5 Hours | 8 Hours

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