A couple from the Blue Mountains - Three Sisters

Was at the Fairmont Resort last week for a conference, and had an hour or so to walk to Sublime Point for some photos.
These were taken on f90x, 20mm (at about f16 or so) using Fuji PRO 160S colour film.
Having no idea how to judge distances, I would say that Sublime Point is something like 2km away from Echo Point/3 Sisters.
Given the time of day and position of the sun, I would normally bracket shots like this, but not having a tripod with me nor the MF26 back for the f90x (which provides a bracketing function), I didn't really bracket. I therefore tried to get some detail in both the sky and foreground (which were many stops apart in exposure), but think I lost a lot of detail in the foreground.
C&C most appreciated, particularly in terms of:
1. Does the lack of prominance of the three sisters, given distance,* reduce any impact of these photos?
2. Does the use of the gradient layer in shot 1 add or detract?
3. Does the monochrome conversion work?
4. Generally, do you think there is enough impact to make these good photos? (Given the exposure problems, I sought to increase contrast via curves - wanting opinions on this).
Shot 1
Shot 2 - this is a cropped photo taken at a slightly different time to Shot 1.
Cheers
Patrick
*It's funny how poor punctuation can ruin the context of the question.
These were taken on f90x, 20mm (at about f16 or so) using Fuji PRO 160S colour film.
Having no idea how to judge distances, I would say that Sublime Point is something like 2km away from Echo Point/3 Sisters.
Given the time of day and position of the sun, I would normally bracket shots like this, but not having a tripod with me nor the MF26 back for the f90x (which provides a bracketing function), I didn't really bracket. I therefore tried to get some detail in both the sky and foreground (which were many stops apart in exposure), but think I lost a lot of detail in the foreground.
C&C most appreciated, particularly in terms of:
1. Does the lack of prominance of the three sisters, given distance,* reduce any impact of these photos?
2. Does the use of the gradient layer in shot 1 add or detract?
3. Does the monochrome conversion work?
4. Generally, do you think there is enough impact to make these good photos? (Given the exposure problems, I sought to increase contrast via curves - wanting opinions on this).
Shot 1

Shot 2 - this is a cropped photo taken at a slightly different time to Shot 1.

Cheers
Patrick
*It's funny how poor punctuation can ruin the context of the question.