Gran Paradiso is the heart of the Gran Paradiso National Park, the homeland of friendly capricorns.

This southward shot was taken from a mountain trail above the Gimillan fraction of the town of Cogne. The highest visible peak (slightly left of the center) is Gran Paradiso (4061 m) and the second highest (slightly right of the center) is Piccolo Paradiso (3923 m). Also visible are Testa della Tribolazione (3650 m, about 3 cm from the left border), Punta di Ceresole (3777 m, another 1 cm to the right), Cresta Gastaldi (3894 m, the next one, with no cloud above it) and, nested below all of them, the Ghiacciaio della Tribolazione, a north-east looking glacier covering an area of about 5.9 square kilometers.

The massif is part of the Graian Alps, the westernmost section of the Alpine range. It lies entirely in Italy, northwest of Torino and south of Aosta.

Cogne, Aosta Valley. August 2007.