GlossyVeneer

Did I ever mention the time that I was coming back from one of my monthly trips to Utah and I passed a fire on the interstate? It was fairly obvious that the fire had started recently and there weren’t any emergency response professionals near the fire and I had a fit of conscience and thought, “I should call this in, just in case nobody knows about it because the fire is pretty large already.” So I started looking around for signs so I could give an accurate description of the fire’s location. I saw a sign down the road but I couldn’t read it just yet. As I drove closer to the sign I saw that it said, “Valley of Fire – 1 mile”.

On Sunday we went hiking at Valley of Fire. I had never been there before and since it is Nevada’s oldest state park and it is only 50 miles north of Las Vegas, I figured I should check it out. The name comes from the brilliant red sandstone formations in the park. As we were driving through a brown desert I was getting pretty skeptical about seeing anything that great. I was wrong. We rounded the corner to the east entrance station and immediately were faced with some gorgeous rock formations.

We stopped first at the Beehives area to get a feel for the area we had just entered. We wandered around, took a few pictures and climbed on some of the rocks. We drove to Atlatl Rock and walked up a flight of stairs that are positioned next to a cliff so we could get a look at the petroglyphs carved into the rock. The winds were exceptionally bitter when we got up in the air on the staircase.

After freezing a little, we got back in the car, made a quick stop at the Visitor Center and then went to Mouse’s Tank. This was supposed to be a short 1/2 mile to .8 mile round trip hike to a natural basin that collects water for months at a time. The trail might have been that short, but it is a sandy trail so it seems longer. Plus we started climbing rocks and going off the trail, so that took a little longer.

We checked out the Rainbow Vista area after the Mouse’s Tank, but it was a 3 mile hike and we’d already wasted a lot of time and it was getting cooler so we didn’t take the hike. I’m going to go back to the park so I can do that hike, Arch Rock and White Domes at some point.

We exited the park via the west entrance. That is where Elephant Rock is located. It truly is a rock that looks like an elephant. To get a really good view of the rock you need to climb through the rocks and see it from the north side, but if you’re not into the climbing you can get a good view from the road.

It was a $6 entrance fee since it is a State Park and it was money well spent. I’m sure we’ll be going back there frequently to do the hikes I mentioned, plus I want to see some of the wildflowers in bloom during the spring.

Tagged: valley of fire nevada

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