Cottonwood Lakes Campground to Mount Langley is a 19.5 mile lightly trafficked out and back trail located near Death Valley, California that features a lake and is rated as difficult. The trail is primarily used for hiking, trail running, and nature trips and is best used from June until October.
hiking
nature trips
trail running
forest
lake
views
I've hiked this route about 3-4 times and love it! My favorite spot to camp is at the biggest Cottonwood lake. Beautiful! Fairly easy getting into the Cottonwood Lakes basin. The trail is nice and very easy to follow. From the lakes to the top of Langley can be a challenge. Definitely prefer Old Army pass as is detailed on this map as the trail tops out in the bottom of the pass. But I've had to go around by Long lake a couple of times due to snow conditions on Old Army pass. Going that way means you have to go up and over and down from a ridge, which means on your way back down from the peak, you have a substantial uphill once again. But when the Old Army pass trail is snowed over, it's better than nothing. The last bit to the top of Langley is a scramble through the scree and route finding through the boulders. Coming down the scree field is fun, though. Some of my best backpacking memories are from this trail.