Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

 

4000 year old Petroglyphs.

The scenery in Valley of Fire is tremendous!  The entry fee is 15 US per vehicle and it is well worth it.  We made our way to the Visitor Center first to check it out and grab a map and this ended up being extremely helpful for our day trip to this State Park. 

Visitor Center

The drive from Las Vegas takes roughly over an hour to get to the entrance to the park.  You drive for a bit and then the beauty around you begins to unfold.  We decided to do the scenic drive first right to the end and then begin our hikes.  

At the Visitor Center, you can walk to Balancing Rock and take some pics but I got my best pic on a drive-by shot when there isn't red rock behind it.

Balancing Rock is incognito in this photo.

Me, looking stylish with Darren's sweats wrapped around my shoulders and Balancing Rock blending into the background

Balancing Rock photo taken as a drive-by.

There is parking all along the way at every hike or lookout.  Our first stop was White Domes Loop, which was a 1.1-mile-long hike.  This was my personal favourite.  Not only was it beautiful but it had an extremely narrow canyon to walk through.  There was all of this beautiful sand to walk through which if I was in my bathing suit with a Margarita in my hand and looking at waves rolling in then I would have appreciated the deep beautiful sand.  But we did not appreciate walking through it but it was a part of the trail and throughout in spots which on already sore knees it feels like it adds miles to your legs, unfortunately.

Walking through the deep sand up and over to enter the canyon

Walking down into the first canyon

Half way down the first canyon looking back up.

Entering the second canyon.

A multitude of colours in the rocks.

Beautiful arch.

The rocks were not slippery to climb on.

We drove on to Fire Wave a 1.5 mile in and out hike.  We did not complete the whole trail, we had to pace ourselves, thanks to our overused volleyball knees.  I can't wait for my cortisone shot.

Walking down into the canyon and looking back up.  You can see the specs of people in the photo.

Personally, I could not get enough of this flamboyant flowering cactus.

The contrast of colours in Valley of Fire is incredible.

That's NOT me on top of that rock.

This beauty can be seen from the Fire Wave parking area.

Fire Canyon Road to Fire Canyon Overlook is about a one-mile road that you drive to and park your car.  I found the best photos to be taken along the way though.

You wonder what was happening in the earth's crust to produce this anomaly of colour?

Rainbow Vista is a 1-mile total out-and-back hike which leads you through a narrow picturesque canyon to the overlook of a deep canyon gorge.  I did not hang around at the mouth of this due to the high winds and there isn't a railing and I did not want to pull a Thelma and Louise act.

This is on the opposite side of the Rainbow Vista parking lot.  Darren thought it was a petrified log in the arch?

This was a beautiful hike.  You can see that there was a lot of deep sand to walk through.

New wildflower to me?  Looked a bit like a moonflower but they only bloom at night.

 

Darren walking through some Badlands.

Another canyon to walk into and whatever goes down must come up again.

This split rock was the size of a truck.

A fairly recent rockslide.

Lovely red sand to walk through.

A vibrant contrast.

I am hanging onto my visor, I was in a wind tunnel up in the rocks.

I loved that the sandstone rock was rough and very easy to walk up and down on.

Gorgeous valleys of differing rock colours in the distance.

Mouse's Tank should be renamed to Mouse's Cheese as the rocks had holes in them.  We did not walk this trail, my knee was done.  While typing up this blog I read that the Mouse's tank features more petroglyphs and a natural water tank.  Shoot, I guess I should have walked this .75-mile trail but we can do it next time.  I would love to come back to Valley of Fire again but with some friends to add to the fun!  However, we did park the car and I got out to snap a few photos.

The trail leading down to Mouse's Tank.

We continued on our drive and all along this scenic road are endless great shots. 

We drove on to Arch Rock and you don't have to walk far to grab a great photo on this one.

I thought that this one resembled the Sphinx of Egypt.

  This large rock formation is in the campground just past the Arch Rock parking spot.

pots.

The Arch Rock can be easily missed because you are looking for something large and it is not.

If you walk around this rock you can catch a better photo of Arch Rock.

Atlatl Rock is a place where you have to walk up about 5 flights of stairs to see cool Petroglyphs that are assumed to be around 4000 years old.  

Notice the stairwell in the background up to the Petroglyphs.

Some wanker decided to deface this area before the Park did something about it and erected the stairs and put up a wire fence so that you can not get at it.  There are also some nice views from the top platform to take. 

There is a hole in the mountain higher up which is very pretty. 

The artists that chose this area to draw chose well as it is protected from the rain by the rock overhang.  When you look at the drawings it reminded me of aliens so I wonder what these people were trying to tell us?

I am not sure what those round things are???

There are quite a few drawings but I liked the foot the best.

The Petrified Logs loop is .25 of a mile.  Darren stayed in the car and I walked it and to be honest it was not worth the walk for the petrified log but for the pretty walk on its own.  The log is surrounded by a chain mail fence to protect it from stupid humans.

Behold, the petrified log.  You can see the shadow being cast by the chain link fence on the log.

This pretty picture was taken from the top of the trail before descending to the petrified log.

Another picture was taken on the Petrified Log trail.

On the way out of the petrified log trail.

Beehive Rock Formations was a stop with a parking lot but they look more like wasp nests to me.  You can park and walk around a bit but you have to walk through a closed-off area to get to the main show and I decided to zoom in with my phone instead.

'One of these things just doesn't belong here', remember that Sesame Street song?

  These red statuesque boulders do not belong here.

Beehive at the bottom

Beehive or Wasp Nest?

We were running out of time and chose not to do the scenic drive east of the Visitor Center which has Elephant Rock near the end.  We had the Jersey Boys Musical to attend this evening and we needed time to bathe to get all of this red sand off of us and get to the show.

I would highly recommend this day trip and see everything if you can.  Plan your day accordingly and bring a lot of water.  The day started out cold and I froze in my shorts and tank top for about 30 minutes.  I borrowed Darren's sweats to tie across my shoulders but as the morning continued then it got hot quickly and if you are walking up and over rocks, you heat up fast.