We arrived at Valley of Fire State Park well after dark. I knew the mountains were red but all we saw driving in was the dark silhouette of them against the night sky. The quiet stillness, the cool temperature, the bright moon and a sky with more stars than I’ve can ever remember seeing, Wow, it was amazing! I felt that nice peaceful feeling wash over me. It always takes me by surprise when you feel your body almost sigh when you take a step away from the grind of daily life and get in touch with nature. When you look up into the night sky with a billion twinkling lights it just makes your worries seem so insignificant in the scheme of things.
Valley of Fire is the oldest and largest State Park in Nevada. Ancient trees and Early Man are represented throughout the park by petrified wood and 3000 year-old petroglyphs. This place is a Geologists dream. There are so many different variations of rocks and the colors are constantly changing throughout the day. I think my favorite time of day is when the sun just starts to set, the rocks become such a brilliant shade of red. I christened my new camera for this trip and I must say that I was very pleased with how they came out. I created a slide show at the end of the post that I hope you enjoy.
We took our RV on this trip and stayed at the Atlatl Rock campground. We were fortunate to secure the last spot available with electrical and water hookups. All the camping spots are on a first come first serve bases. They had plenty of “dry camp sites” (no water or power) which would have worked out okay for us because our RV is pretty self sufficient. These dry spots were actually the most picturesque due to the fact that they were really close to the rocks. Valley of Fire is also great for just a day trip due to the fact that it is just a mere 56 miles from Las Vegas. The speed limit in the actual park is a little bit slower so the actual drive time is approximately 1 1/2 hours.
One of the places that I had to see was the “Fire Wave”. This moderate round trip hike was approximately 1 1/2 miles but was so worth it. The rocks literally looked like waves you would see in the ocean with so many cool colors. At the end of the hike was this huge rocks that looked like a top of a Dairy Queen Ice Cream cone . Over time the surface of this rock had been shaped like this and it was so smooth to the touch. I guess this is a pretty popular spot for photographers.
If you’ve got a car, definitely take a drive out here. Valley of Fire Sate Park does not disappoint!
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