Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Valley of Fire State Park is located in the southeast corner of Nevada, about 50 miles from Las Vegas. It was Nevada's first state park, established in 1935. There are two campgrounds, one with water and electric (Atlatl Rock) and one with no hook-ups (Arch Rock). We chose Arch Rock because it was less crowded and, in our opinion, was prettier.






Here are two different views from our campsite as the sun was coming up.

And here's one at night from the same spot. My first attempt at photographing the Milky Way after the hands-on program we attended in Capitol Reef. This is a dark sky area, so the stars were beautiful.

The Arch Rock for which our campground is named

The other campground is named for Atlatl Rock. An atlatl is a kind of spear used by the ancient tribes that lived here. There are petroglyphs carved into the rocks by the Basketmaker culture about 2,500 years ago. You can see an example of an atlatl. A metal staircase was installed so you can view the petroglyphs up close.

The main road through the park starts at the Visitor Center. It takes you through a beautiful valley surrounded by bright red Aztec sandstone outcrops and gray and tan limestone mountains.

There are several hiking trails off of this road. We did three of them. The first was to "The Fire Wave." We weren't sure what the wave would look like, but we figured we'd know it when we saw it.

View from the trail

Pretty Cacti on the trail

Tracks

 

We thought this was The Wave....Nope, not yet.

This is The Wave!

Our second hike was around White Domes which started from the end of the park road. It was a rugged loop trail with some beautiful colored rocks and a surprise slot canyon.

The pink and yellow rock "stairs" were part of the trail.

This area of the trail had been used for movie location shots.

The slot canyon

Lee at the entrance

In the middle

 

The other end of the canyon

More rugged terrain

An arch at the end of the loop

The third hike was to Rainbow Vista. This was an out and back trail. It gets it's name from the rainbow colored rock formations along the trail. The trail was sand which can be challenging to walk through. As the sun set lower in the sky, the colors became more vivid.

View from the end of the trail

As we returned, the sand took on a reddish tone. The cholla cacti and sage brush seemed to glow.

If you're in the area, I recommend this park. One of our friends suggested it to us when they heard we were going through Nevada, otherwise we probably wouldn't have stopped here. It's worth a trip.

Now that we've checked Nevada off our list, back to the Grand Canyon. This time the South Rim! Stay tuned.