Dante's View Twilight
— the half-hour the basin holds the blue.
Not only on a wall.
“The view from the Black Mountains rim, looking west over Badwater Basin, the lowest place in North America at two hundred and eighty-two feet below sea level. Telescope Peak rises across the valley, snow on it most of the year. At twilight the valley fills with shadow first while the peak still holds the light. The blue lasts about half an hour. The road up is paved to the rim. Most visitors come at sunrise, when the basin reads orange. Twilight is quieter. A handful of cars, a few people standing apart, not talking much.
Dante's View Twilight, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Dante's View sits at 5,476 feet (1,669 metres) on the rim of the Black Mountains, the eastern wall of Death Valley. The Black Mountains are part of the Amargosa Range, running north-south along the California-Nevada border. From the viewpoint, the eye drops to Badwater Basin, the salt pan 282 feet below sea level, the lowest land in North America. Across the valley, Telescope Peak rises to 11,049 feet, the highest point in the Panamint Range. The drive is paved the whole way: thirteen miles south from State Route 190 on Dante's View Road, then a steep climb to the parking area. The viewpoint sits inside Death Valley National Park, in Inyo County, California.
The viewpoint reads differently at every hour, but it is best known for the half-hour after the sun goes down. The Black Mountains rim sits high enough at 5,476 feet that the basin below falls into shadow before the rim does. For a few minutes the salt flats turn lavender, then a deep blue. Photographers call this the blue hour. The National Park Service notes the air is often fifteen to twenty-five degrees cooler at the rim than on the valley floor, which keeps the view clear when the lower air shimmers. The 1977 film Star Wars used the western panorama from this rim as the establishing shot of Mos Eisley on Tatooine.
Dante's View is a drive-up viewpoint inside Death Valley National Park, which is open every day of the year with no posted entrance hours. The standard route is paved State Route 190 east from Furnace Creek for about 12 miles, then south on Dante's View Road for 13 miles. The final mile climbs steeply enough that vehicles longer than 25 feet are not advised, per the National Park Service. The parking area sits a short flat walk from the main lookout. Park entry is $30 per vehicle for seven days. Summer rim temperatures regularly stay below 90°F while the valley floor pushes past 120°F, making the viewpoint the most comfortable place in Death Valley on a July afternoon.