The road to Dante's View is paved with a parking lot adjacent to the coordinates. Trailers and long vehicles are prohibited from the final few windy miles.
As with all locations in National Parks, everything is protected, so leave it as you found it.
Death Valley is on the western edge of the Basin and Range Geomorphologic Province. A geomorphologic province is an area of the earth's crust that has the same geologic history. As a result the regional geomorphology is usually the same and has been formed by the same geologic processes. The Basin and Range Province extends from southeastern California to New Mexico and from Southern Organ and Idaho south to the Mexico states of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Baja California. See the map.
The Basin and Range Geomorphologic Province is characterized by roughly parallel mountain ranges separated by wide valleys. The mountain ranges trend north-south. Due to the orientation of these mountain ranges, they form rain shadows creating arid desert regions. The rain that does fall in this Province often does not flow to an ocean, but but drain internally to form pluvial lakes. The Great Salt Lake is one example.
The Basin and Range Province is thought to have formed from crustal expansion. The crust on either side of this province was pulled apart, stretching and thinning the crust forming parallel normal faults. The block of rock in between these normal faults drops down leaving ridges (mountain ranges) on either side. The faults in this regions are often steep resulting in mountains ranges that quickly rise up from the valley edge. One of the best examples of this is the rise from Badwater (-282 feet msl), just below this location to Telescope Peak (11,050 feet msl) the tallest mountain across the valley.
This large elevation change, lack of vegetation in this arid region, and characteristic intense rainfall results in high rates of erosion. So while the basins between the mountain ranges are dropping, erosion from the surrounding mountains quickly fill the basins. Often alluvial fans and bajadas form at the base of the mountain ranges.
Logging requirements:
Send me a note with :
- The text "GC2V539 Dante's View" on the first line
- The number (including non-cachers) and names of the geocachers in your group.
- What description does the informational sign give Death Valley?
- According to the informational sign, how fast is Death Valley filling in relation to it's sinking?
- (bonus at the further informational sign N36 13.090 W116 43.738; this sign apparently has been moved or removed. The info may be on another sign in the area now.) How does geologist C.E. Dutton describe the Basin and Range Province?
The following sources were used to generate this cache:
- Sharp, Robert P. and Allen F. Glazner, Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley, Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula , Montana, 1997
- NPS Informatinal sign.