Winter Sunset from Dante's View

by Mike Lee

Title

Winter Sunset from Dante's View

Artist

Mike Lee

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

A popular spot in Death Valley National Park is a high prominence known as Dante’s View. It is named for Dante Alighieri, author of Divina Commedia (The Devine Comedy). This seems rather fitting as, while it is beautiful, you can probably find plenty of the circles of Hell in Death Valley, especially in summer. On this evening standing at the edge of the 5600 foot elevation and looking over Badwater Basin which is nearly 300 feet below sea level I wasn’t hot, I was darn near hypothermic as I wasn’t really dressed to be there. My car thermometer said it was just over 40 degrees Fahrenheit but that does no justice to the insane winds that are created in such a radical elevation change. I had no way to measure but I guarantee some of the gusts were over 30mph and felt like they blew right through the thin hiking pants I was wearing – just an hour earlier I was sweating in those pants and only a tee shirt on the valley floor.

At least my suffering was rewarded with some beautiful color in the moody sky as the sun dropped over the Panamint Range to the west (camera left).

Uploaded

January 26th, 2023

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