The Valley of Fire

Today we were up early and off to have breakfast at

Blueberry Hill.  After a hearty breakfast, we left the

glitz and glamour of Vegas behind us and drove North on I-15.  After about a hour’s drive, we found Nevada’s oldest state park.  And what a find it was…

Once we arrived at the

park, we stopped

at the West entrance and paid our $6.00 fee.  We picked up the map and started on our self guided  journey.

The road through the park goes right through the sandstone formations, so you can drive the entire park and enjoy the sights.  Several different locations have marked trailheads for hiking.

Let’s get started…

Our first stop on the tour was

Arch Rock.  Then, on to

Atlatl Rock.  This is a location that has outstanding examples of ancient Indian rock art

known as petroglyphs.

Here in this loop, we found a

small campground.  It offers walk in tent camping, sites with

water only, and sites with

water and 30/50 amp electricity.  Nice pull through, and look Deb, satellite too!  The cost is $24.00 a day for the RV sites...no reservations, and open year round.

The climate varies in the winter with temperatures ranging from freezing to 75 degrees.  However, daily summer temperatures reach as much as 120 degrees.  The annual rainfall is 4 inches coming either as a light winter shower or a summer thunderstorm.

Back on the scenic loop, we found ourselves at the

visitor center.  After a short stop here, we headed to the interior loop.  First stop was

the trailhead to Mouse’s Tank. This spot was named for a renegade who used the area as a hideout in the 1890’s  It is a natural basin in the rock where water collects after rainfalls, sometimes remaining for months.

Come as we head down this 1/2 mile trail,

through the canyon,

past the prehistoric petroglyphs.  Finally, we reached the end of the trail to the spot

for which it was named.

After the hike out, the next stop would be at

Rainbow Vista.  This seemed to be a favorite photo stop because of the

panoramic view of the multi-colored sandstone.  I have to admit, there was

quite a view.  The road that you see eventually took us to

the White Domes.  We walked for ways on this

trail, took a few

more pictures, but chose not to walk down the hill to the bottom and across to the other side as we still had a lot to see.  On the way back to the car,

I had to stop and see

just how tall was the wall of this canyon.

I also had to take take off my shoes and

walk through the sand.  It had a texture that was like icing sugar and the color is brilliant rust-red.  The wind was really blowing today, and it

didn’t take long to cover up  your trail.

While on this loop, we also saw

Fire Canyon/Silica Dome.  This was an excellent view of the

deep red sandstone and the unique features of Silica Dome.

As we headed East out of the park, we stopped to see

the rock formation called, Seven Sisters and

Elephant Rock, which finished up the tour.

We chose to continue on east bound out of the park and onto

the road that would take us around the North shore of Lake Mead.  However, we could only

catch an occasional glimpse of the lake.  Mostly, we just saw

more desert and more mountains.  But all too soon,

we were back to where we started this day.