Trip report
Feb 26, 2020 — The Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop is a popular Death Valley hike, but it's really pretty and worth doing, specifically the badlands section about halfway through the loop. It's a well-marked trail and shows off quite a bit of the majesty of Death Valley's colors in a relatively short distance. Matt and I had decided to do this loop, but wanted to tack on a massive muddy feature called Manly Beacon. I did this loop almost five years ago (wtf time flies), so it was nice to return with a new mindset, my purpose on bagging a peak. I'd seen Manly Beacon back then and thought it was impressive, but didn't even think to try to get to the top of it. I feel I should note that a week or so after we hiked Manly Beacon, someone fell off and died, so be careful. Just because this is a popular area doesn't mean the peak is safe.
We started off at the Golden Canyon trailhead and followed the wash through bright yellow hills until a junction pointed us to the right out of the wash and into the badlands. A really gorgeous trail led up one of the big yellow mounds and along the base of Many Beacon's sheer eroded cliff. The trail continued gaining elevation as we continued south, well past the peak, and then dropped us down toward the Gower Gulch Trail. However, before reaching Gower Gulch we turned left up a wash that led us to the east side of Manly Beacon, where a social trail led up a dirt finger that brought us to the northeast ridge of Manly Beacon. To the north was Red Cathedral, another lovely-looking eroded formation. We could see many people up there who had gotten to it from a social trail from Zabriskie Point.
The crumbly ridgeline leading to Manly Beacon's summit is eroded enough from footprints to be not super treacherous as it likely was years ago, but I'd still call it Class 3 due to a short section that requires you to hold onto conglomerate-esque rocks lodges into the crumbly ridge. Otherwise it just takes a little bit of care to ascend safely. The sunset views we got on the summit toward the eastern badlands and Zabriskie Point were really amazing.
We got back to the trail and followed it to Gower Gulch, which was mostly just a wide wash until we reached a short narrow section. The trail spit us out to the south of the parking lot, and a trail led through the desert back. We had no light, so I included a few photos from my last visit into Gower Gulch.