After having so much fun in Mosaic Canyon, we decided to do another canyon hike today. So we chose to do a loop trail from Gower Gulch to Golden Canyon. We started out at 9:30 and decided to go counter clockwise to get the low desert portion of the hike out of the way while it was cooler. As we headed up Gower Gulch, we had to scramble over sore pour offs, but nothing too hard. The gulch was very scenic and had a variety of colors. The best part was it had a fair amount of shade. You know you are a experienced desert hiker if you take the path with the most shade verses the easiest path. As we approached badlands part of the hike, we came across two couples that we had met in Mosaic Canyon. David had explained to them how to get up one of the taller slick rock pour offs by climbing up it Ninja style. So as we came up on them, the one husband turned to the wives and yells out “Hey Honey, it’s the Ninja Guy!”. Sigh.
The badlands were colorful but hot. As we started to descend in Golden Canyon from the highest point of the hike we came to the junction with the Red Cathedral trail. So we took the side trail to the Red Cathedral, which is a red rock formation with columns like a cathedral. As we finished the hike (6.1 Miles, 1,066 feet of elevation gain, 1,734 calories burned), we decided to stop off at Furnace Creek for lunch. As we approached Furnace Creek, traffic came to a stand still. Leslie checked on the park website and found out we had stumbled into the Death Valley 49ers parade. They do a reenactment of a 20 mule team wagon train through the main thoroughfare of the park. We finally got to the gas station and stopped to top off (at $5.68 per gallon) for our drive tomorrow. There were people everywhere, so we decided to head on to Stovepipe Well for lunch. We got back in the line of cars behind the wagon train and crawled along until the 20 mule team turned off toward the borax mine. Lunch at Stovepipe Well was a little late, but really tasted good after the hike.
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| Leslie climbing up one of the pour offs in lower Gower Gulch |
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| Gower Gulch |
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| The Badlands in upper Golden Canyon |
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| Panoramic from top of Red Cathedral |
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| Red Cathedral |
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| Twenty Mule Team Wagon Train |
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| Lower Golden Canyon |
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| Lower Golden Canyon |
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