Valley of Fire State Park (Nevada)
I had taken a mini vacation in November of 2022, and had flown into Las Vegas, which I used as a base camp to visit Death Valley National Park and Zion National Park. I was on my way to Zion and saw a sign for Valley of Fire (Nevada) State Park. I had a couple hours of daylight, and thought I probably would be getting into Zion late enough that it was going to be dark anyway, might as well check out this State park on my way, I figured if nothing else it might add some time to the drive, but should be scenic. The next couple of hours was a highlight of the trip and I want to go back and spend at least a couple of days.
Valley of Fire is a great, and appropriate, name. It was enough to make me curious, and driving through the park, especially as the sun was going down showed me why the park was named Valley of Fire. The light was making the multiple colors running through the rocks glow, and casting shadows that showed the contrast between the textured surfaces.
After entering the park from the western entrance, I saw a sign for a scenic drive and thought I’d check it out. I literally only had a little one page pamphlet that I got at the entrance station that looked like it was printed on printer that was probably state of the art in 1995. I don’t say that to make fun of the park, but to underscore how understated the park is, because “scenic drive” was symbolized with a little dotted line that implied it might be nice, instead it was one of the most awe inspiring places I’ve been. There were two little labels with “Arch Rock” and “Atlatl Rock”, I wanted to stop at literally every turn. If I had one suggestion it would be to make up more names and put labels all over, because I was fighting the sunset and almost skipped the loop to see more of the park before the sun went down, and this was one of the best stretches of road I have ever been on.
Park entrance.
The rock formations and colors were beautiful.
Beginning of the scenic loop.
Rock formations along scenic loop.
Rock formations along scenic loop.
Rock formations along scenic loop.
Arch rock.
Arch rock panoramic.
Atlatl rock.
Atlatl rock.
Atlatl rock.
Atlatl rock.
After seeing how amazing that small section of the park was, I figured I’d keep going. There was a road that led to the visitor’s center and into the park to a place called “Fire Wave”. I figured if there was a highlight of a park called Valley of Fire, it would be Fire Wave. I figured I’d skip the visitor’s center so I could see the Fire Wave, assuming it would be open on my way back (it wasn’t, so I don’t know what was there). I wanted to get to the Fire Wave, so I kept my eyes open for places I might want to stop on the way back if there was light, but had to stop and check out the wildlife. There was a big horn sheep with a harem of females nibbling on brush on the side of the road, and I had to watch them for a bit. I did get to the Fire Wave, and it was pretty incredible. The map looked like the trail to the Fire Wave was a loop, but after getting about half way through the loop I hadn’t crossed over the road and didn’t want to risk it getting dark before I got back to my car, so I turned around and headed back the way I came. I would have loved to finish the loop because it was beautiful and part of me didn’t want to backtrack because I already saw that portion of trail and wanted “new” landscapes, but again, I could spend a week here and want to stay longer.
Watch for wildlife sign.
The park was uncrowded enough I could stand in the road and take a picture.
Bighorn sheep
Harem of bighorn ewes.
Bighorn sheep.
Bighorn sheep.
Road weaved through the desert.
Amazing rock stratigraphy.
Amazing rock stratigraphy.
Amazing rock stratigraphy.
Amazing rock stratigraphy.
Amazing rock stratigraphy.
It was getting darker, and I was still trying to get to Zion before it got too late, so I got back to my car and started driving back to the main road. I also saw a little spot on the map that said “Elephant Rock”, and it looked like it was right by the East entrance, so I thought if I hurried I might be able to see it before it got dark. I got to the trailhead right as the sun started setting, but didn’t see a rock that could obviously be “elephant rock”, but the trail was only like a quarter mile, so I started speed walking the trail to see if I could find it. I kept focusing on going forward and got to a part of the trail that started to look less maintained and had to start climbing over rocks. I still didn’t see an “elephant rock”. I finally started thinking I had better turn around, the sun was still setting, but if I kept going it might get dark, and I didn’t want to climb down the boulders I was climbing in the dark. So I turned around and felt like an idiot. There was this crazy rock formation that looked exactly like an elephant with a trunk. Luckily there was still some light and I got a photo with the sunsetting in the background.
Elephant rock.
Loved the "poloroid" sign.
Beautiful desert sunset.