No need to send firetrucks to the valley. The fire in the valley can be found at one of my favorite parks, the Valley of Fire State Park near Overton, NV. That fire is a torment of beauty, nature, wildlife and history.
I made my second visit to this amazing place early this week. My first visit was in the summer and the temperature was 114 degrees on that visit. Due to the heat and my shortness of time, I was not able to spend much time in the park.
This time was different. Very different.
The temperature was 40 degrees, a 74 degree difference from my first visit. I also had more time this visit. I was able to hike the Fire Wave and White Dome trails. While 40 degrees may seem cold in a desert area of NV, during my drive down from Utah, I hit temps of -15 degrees.
Because I had more time this visit, I was able to get in several hikes. I first did the Fire Wave trail. The Fire Wave is shown in the photo above. It starts with a trip around the Rock of Gibraltar shown below.
To get to the Fire Wave is less than a 2 mile roundtrip. However, the trail does extend beyond the Fire Wave. I really enjoyed this hike and location. The colors were fantastic as was the terrain. I also enjoyed the sparsity of visitors at the park. I am sure it gets more crowded in the warmer weather.
I love the formation of the sandy mud.
The video below has several highlights that also include scenes from the Fire Wave trail.
In addition to the Fire Wave trail, I found other wonderful things to photograph. I love the street shots. While I think they are ok, I don’t feel I have it completely captured. Below are a few.
(Paying homage to the boxing game Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots)
Below are a variety of shots taken throughout the park. You can click to see them enlarged. The camping shot shows a super cool camping area around the Arch Rock area of the park.
I returned to the park on Day 2 shortly after sunrise. I really enjoy early morning light. When I get to know the park even better, I will be able to know some of the best locations to take advantage of the morning light. I am going to come back in the spring and campout out a couple nights so that I can also shoot some stars shots in the park. I think Balancing Rock and Gibraltar Rock would both be good locations for this.
Speaking of morning light, below are a few of the morning pix I captured. The first two are from the same location, just with different focal lengths.
The photos and video below are from my hike of the White Domes Trail on Day 2. It was a cool hike and I encountered over 20 big horn sheep.
As is becoming practice, I am going to share some of the selfies I took during my visit. The first is my favorite. It was shot at the Fire Wave. The last one is my 2nd fave. It was shot on Mouse Tank Road.
As is the case with most of my visits to parks, I cannot wait to go back. There is so much to explore! I would love to go with some peeps, so if you are interested, hit me up and we can schedule a time to go.
LEARN MORE ABOUT VALLEY OF FIRE
World-renowned for its 40,000 acres of bright red Aztec sandstone outcrops nestled in gray and tan limestone, Valley of Fire State Park contains ancient, petrified trees and petroglyphs dating back more than 2,000 years. A Visitor Center provides exhibits on the geology, ecology, prehistory and history of the park and nearby region.
The Umenum 