Dante's View

Dante's View is a perch on the crest of the Black Mountains, 1,669 metres up on the north shoulder of Coffin Peak, and what it frames is the whole architecture of Death Valley in a single glance. Directly below, almost vertically, lies Badwater Basin, 86 metres below sea level and the lowest ground in North America; straight across, about 20 kilometres to the west, the Panamint Range climbs to Telescope Peak at 3,367 metres. The difference between the valley floor and that summit is well over three kilometres of relief, and from here it reads as one continuous wall of rock and air.

The salt pan is the thing to watch. In flat midday light it is a blinding white sheet laced with the pale threads of dry channels; early and late in the day the ridges throw long shadows across it, and the Panamints on the far side turn copper, then violet. Sunrise is the favourite hour, when the light comes over your shoulder from the east and strikes the western range first while the basin is still in blue shade.

The name dates from April 1926, when executives of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, scouting the valley for its tourist potential with a local deputy sheriff, picked this spot and called it after Dante Alighieri, the poet of the Inferno. Half a century later the view reached a far larger audience: George Lucas filmed here for the 1977 Star Wars, with the spaceport of Mos Eisley painted into the basin below.

Getting there

Dante's View lies inside Death Valley National Park, about 16 miles (some 25 km) south of Furnace Creek. The nearest town of any size is Pahrump, Nevada, about 67 km away as the crow flies; the nearest major airport is Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas (LAS), around 142 km in a straight line. From Highway 190 east of Furnace Creek, a paved spur road runs 13 miles up to the viewpoint, climbing gently until a final steep quarter-mile at about 14%. Vehicles with a combined length of 25 feet or more are not allowed on the last six miles because of tight turns and a small parking area. There is no public transport; a car is needed.