arriving at furnace creek in death valley from big pine creek was quite a contrast, so we took a day off for sightseeing (scotty's castle and all the sights around furnace creek). then we decided to have an early start (6:30) for a run through golden canyon, the idea was to start in furnace creek at the intersection of 190 and the road to badwater 
, run towards badwater 
, and then run up golden canyon to zabriskie point, coming down the 190 for the way back. as it turned out, the run did not take as long as expected, from the intersection we had 20min to golden canyon (making sure not to miss the turn-off, because otherwise it could become a pretty long and hot run... 
), and then another 25min up to zabriskie point, which was some of the best running in the desert i ever did 
.
because it did not take very long to get through the canyon, we briefly admired the landscape from zabriskie point 
(not a single car in the parking lot, very nice to have this location for yourself), and then turned around to run back down through golden canyon to the badwater road. and since this was not a very long run and we had had a rest day before it, it somehow turned into a race when going down golden canyon, ending in a fierce sprint on the final stretch of the badwater road 
, a pretty good early morning workout.
the total time for the run was 1:30, so it would have been perfectly possible to start directly at the campground and choose the shorter way back going down the 190 instead of going down golden canyon again. if you run this loop, make sure to get an early start so that it is not too hot, and take some water, the air is very dry and your mouth will become dry very fast.
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