10/21/2014 Trip Notes: Once you reach the parking lot at the top of Dante's View (located at the end of the trail in (Fig. 01), there are two trails you can take to view the valley floor below. One leads downward from the parking area to a couple of small rocky outcrops (Fig. 02), the other leads up to an even higher viewpoint, seen in the top center of (Fig. 01). For today’s visit, my cousin and I decided to hike up the rather steep trail to the upper viewpoints (Figs. 03 & 04). A spot about 3/4’s of the way up provided some great northerly views of the valley below (Figs. 05 & 06). Climbing even higher provided some great views looking nearly straight down at Badwater Basin and across to the west side of the valley toward the California mountain range (Fig. 07). If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see some people standing at the spot we were at in the two previous pictures (Figs. 05 & 06) above. The last shot in (Fig. 08) was taken on the way back down the trail and shows the parking lot and the top of the lower viewing point in the very center of the picture. Even though we drove around the Death Valley area and visited Devil's Golf Course, Badwater Basin, Artist's Palette, and the old Harmony Borax Mill site, this was by far the most enjoyable stop of the day.
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