Day 13 Valley of Fire

After we left Las Vegas, we were going to go to Hoover Dam but with a major traffic back up, we didn't want to waste any time so stopped at Lake Mead and

walked down to the water.

We drove north through the desert for about an hour including 20 miles of roadwork with about 10 miles of gravel to...

It was 110 degrees. I've heard that dry heat in the desert is more bearable than dealing with humidity... Not.

When I was planning the trip, I came across this Park when I was looking at Google satellite views of the south west.


The colors from space show a mix of red, pink, white, yellow, grey & green.

Close up, the colors were intense.


We've been getting good at picking out faces & animals in the rocks. Can you find any?

The rocks had fantastic shapes & textures.



There were holes in the rocks all over the place.

Elephant Rock

Words can't describe all the fantastic combinations of colors, striation & erosion of the rocks.

Each turn of the road brought more fantasic views.

Slick Rock & Face

Melted Red Rock

Another Elephant

I don't know how I could describe this to someone without showing the pictures,

We were overwhelmed with sensory overload or maybe it was the heat.

The state park web site has a really interesting slide show.
http://parks.nv.gov/vf

Heading north towards Utah we had our 1st view of the multi-color rocks that we'll see for the next week.

Can the sky be more blue than this?

When planning the trip, this is what I most wanted to see. I think our experience certainly will be elevated.