Every Trail Tells a Story
Zabriskie Point and Gower Gulch
Earn the famous Zabriskie Point view on foot.
Hike a loop through colorful badlands and miner-dug gulches.
Add film lore, mining history, and a dash of Hollywood humor.
While it’s true you can drive to Zabriskie Point, you’ll appreciate the view much more by sweating up those switchbacks on foot. The memorable panorama from Zabriskie Point includes a grand view of the valley, framed by the badlands just below and the Panamint Mountains to the west.
Before sunrise, photographers set up their tripods at Zabriskie Point and aim down at the pale mudstone hills of Golden Canyon and the valley beyond. The changing palette – lavenders, purples, then pinks and golds – is one of Death Valley’s daily miracles.
Zabriskie Point owes its name to Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, a head of the Pacific Coast Borax Company. But for many, the words “Zabriskie Point” conjure not borax but the 1970 cult film by Michelangelo Antonioni. His movie – part desert poetry, part campus protest, part head-scratching hallucination – used Death Valley as a backdrop for free love, consumerist explosions, and characters who seemed to wander in from an LSD-fueled casting call. The movie flopped but left us with unforgettable imagery, proving the landscape steals every scene.
For hikers, Zabriskie Point is no less dramatic. Approaching it on foot makes the view feel earned, a finale to a rolling walk through golden badlands and beneath Manly Beacon’s serrated crown.
And then there’s Gower Gulch. No, not the “other” Gower Gulch – the Hollywood street corner at Sunset and Gower, long nicknamed for the faded hopefuls who hung around hoping to be “discovered.” This Gower Gulch offers no casting directors, just gravel washes, miner-dug tunnels, and the stark evidence of borax booms gone bust. Still, if you squint at the eroded walls, you can almost imagine movie extras filing past, on their way to some forgotten Western set.
Looping through Gower Gulch adds grit and character to the hike. The gulch narrows, squeezes you past a dry fall, then sets you free with a final stroll back along the highway. By then you’ve seen the desert’s theater from multiple angles – front row at Zabriskie, backstage in Gower – and had yourself a starring role in the great badlands drama.
From the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, drive south on Highway 190, forking right onto Badwater Road. The signed Golden Canyon Trail is on your left, 3 miles from the visitor center. The hike to Zabriskie Point shares a common trailhead with the shorter excursion through Golden Canyon.
Follow the Golden Canyon Interpretive Trail for a mile, then fork toward Zabriskie Point. The trail climbs steadily, skirting Manly Beacon and dropping into undulating badlands. After 2.5 miles you’ll reach the final pitch to Zabriskie Point – yes, it’s also reachable by car, but you’ve earned the view the honest way.
Retrace your steps to the junction, then descend into wide, gravelly Gower Gulch, scarred by miners and their borax tunnels. The gulch narrows dramatically, squeezing hikers past a 30-foot dry fall before opening into a broad wash. From here, a 1.2-mile path parallels the highway back to the Golden Canyon trailhead.