Valley of Fire State Park
Leaving Utah behind after seeing so much rugged and inspiring scenery, we heading westward once again. There was a point of interest the Camp Host back at Cave Creek had strongly suggested as well as on of the bloggers Cindy follows -
Valley of Fire State Park. Located an hour or so NNE of Las Vegas, VOFSP was the first state park in the Nevada system, added from land set aside to build
Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam). Lake Mead is just a few miles to the East of the park.
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| Valley of Fire - Arch Rock Campground |
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| rig parked across the way!!! not a VW Westfalia!! |
Set in a geologic area 500 million years old, VOFSP has stunning landscapes of red sandstone set against gray limestone and other materials. There are petrified logs of pine trees that are two or more feet in diameter, showing that tens of millions or years ago, the landscape was indeed much different that what we see today.
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| compare the size of the petrified log to the brush behind it |
All sites are first come first serve, but since we were arriving on a Thursday morning in late March, we figured we would have a good chance to get on of the less than 50 sites in the park. After driving the small two lane black top road from I15 back to the Park Entrance, we were saddened to see "Campground Full" posted at the Ranger Station. The Ranger said "don't get your hopes up but you can go in and look", and at least for the nominal $10 fee to enter the park (not the $20 camping fee) we could drive around and see the sights. My sunny brain said, there will be sites coming available but.....who knows?? In we went, cruised through the first campground loop and indeed......it was full. On we drove to the second loop about half a mile beyond, and there was a site!!! You could see the dry outline of where the camper must have just left (it was drizzling at the time). We pulled up, I hopped out and paced off the site and YES!! Winnie's 32 ft will fit with just enough room for Jeep parked sideways in front (I needed to move the picnic table to achieve this). Cindy directed me into the site and just as we were getting ready to call it our home for the night, a better site opened up across the way. Cindy walked over to claim it while I drove around to it and minutes later , we were settled in for the one day stay we had planned.
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| once again - thanks to the men of the CCC for providing us with great places |
Loading Cooper and CJ into Jeep, along with a packed lunch and water, off we went to hike and drive the park and see the sights. You may think "more red rocks??" but again, these were much different that anything we had ever seen. See what you think.
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| located in a canyon "-Mouse's Tank", hundreds of petroglyphs!! |
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| amazing rock layers - hundreds of millions of years old |
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| check out all the holes! |
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| typical red sandstone formation at VOFSP |
If you are in the Vegas area, and camping, this is less that an hour North of the city and just off I15. A 1-2 day s stay would be all that is needed, unless you want to do some serious hiking. We took 4 hours and were satisfied with what we accomplished and saw. From the campsites, you are surrounded by the red rock formations and the views they afford. There are excursions from Vegas if you are not in camping mode that you can take as well to see the sights.
On our way out the next morning, we were fortunate enough to have a herd of Big Horn Sheep cross just in front of us!
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| Big Horn Sheep center right edge of picture |
more to come
a tip of the hat to the Aliens
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| interesting!! |
take care
Cooper and CJ
