“Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.” This is from Dante's play, Divine Comedy, and the first act, Inferno, which of course is about Hell. No, I haven't read or seen the play, but putting a quote at the beginning of the blog is pretty classy, right? (Hey, I Googled it, OK?) Seriously, I was so taken by my first stop on Day 3, I decided to devote an entire blog post to it.
Dante's View is a viewpoint in the Black Mountains that overlooks Badwater Basin and the entire valley between the adjacent mountain ranges. At 5,476 ft. above sea level, it is over a mile above Badwater Basin, which as I noted in my previous post, is the lowest spot in North America. Dante's View therefore is an appropriate name.
I got to the viewpoint via a twisty, narrow road just before sunrise and was surprised that I was the only one there. Awesome! As the sun rose to the east, the mountains and the valley floor gradually began to light up. A couple times I almost left, but when I looked out across the valley, it had changed again. I just couldn't leave! In the end, I spent almost 2 hours here and took nearly 450 photos!
Below are a bunch of photos from Dante's View...enjoy! (Disclaimer: There was quite a bit of haze, so I dehazed and enhanced colors slightly in the computer. Artist's prerogative! Also, as always, these are very quick and preliminary edits...they may not look like the final versions!)
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| Looking east from Dante's View |
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| Badwater Basin and the valley below |
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| Close-up of Badwater Basin salt flats. The little line at the left of the photo is the walkway from the parking lot. The photo of the salt crystals in the previous post was taken very near where the walkway ends. |
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| Looking across the valley to the opposite mountain ranges. |
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| A rock near where I was standing, freshly illuminated by the rising sun. |
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| The mountains across the valley. The tallest mountain is Telescope Peak, part of the Panamint Mountain range. |
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| Some rocks to the right of my vantage point getting hit with the first rays of sunlight. |
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| A self-portrait! |
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| Shadows of the Black Mountains on Badwater Basin. |
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| Close-up of the valley floor. |
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| Close-up of the valley floor. |
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| Close-up of the valley floor. |
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