Dante's View

The main side road continues R. from the junction to DANTE'S VIEW (light effects best in morning), 13.9 m. (5,220 alt.), overlooking Death Valley from the summit of the Black Mountains. The two extremes of altitude in the 48 States are visible from this point. More than a mile below is Badwater (-279.6 alt.), and westward over the Panamints in the snowy Sierra Nevada is Mt. Whitney (14,495 alt.). Snow-capped Telescope Peak just opposite in the Panamints towers more than two miles above Death Valley and a mile above this spot. White salt areas in the valley are sharply outlined against the gravel slopes. Mesquite thickets make green patches at Mesquite and Bennett Wells (L) and Furnace Creek Ranch (R). The steep, rugged mountain walls that baffled the Death Valley party of 1849 stretch north and south, and the Avawatz and Owlshead Mountains block the valley southward. Eastward, beyond the twisted slopes of the Black Mountains, are the barren desert ranges of southern Nevada.
--The WPA Guide to California, 1939