Valley of Fire State Park

SOUTHEAST NEVADA

Valley of Fire State Park is located in southeast Nevada, just two hours from my home base near St. George, Utah and one hour from Las Vegas. The park was named by an AAA official who was traveling the road at sunset and reported that the entire region of red rock looked like it was on fire in the waning light.

Fun Fact - a few famous movies were filmed in this park:

• Viva Las Vegas, filmed in 1963, starring Elvis Presley - many of the race scenes from the film's finale were filmed here

• Total Recall, released in 1990, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger - the Mars scenes were filmed almost exclusively in this park

• The Professionals (1966), Star Trek Generations (1994), and several automobile commercials were also filmed here.

Rainbow Vista

I started my tour with a quick 1.1 mile trail called Rainbow Vista. It's a couple hours past sunrise, so a little different than light right at sunset, but you kind of get the idea of where the name comes from.

Fire Wave, White Domes, and Seven Wonders Loop

From there, I moved to a 3.3 mile hike that was soooo pretty. I've seen some beautiful rock formations on this journey, but I've never seen a place with as many distinct colors, all swirled together in one area.

Here's your first view on the hike. Sets the bar pretty high, right? Don't worry. It gets even better. The photo below reminds me of the yogurt swirl rocks at White Pocket.

From red and white, we are introduced to pink and white and yellow. And here's proof that Arizona and Utah don't have a monopoly on that incredible blue sky.

Look at this detail ... I just can't get over how the colors are so vivid with fine distinct lines. Plus, blush is one of my favorite colors so I particularly love this rock:

And THIS!! As vivid as the colors are in this picture, you don't get the full palette of colors unless you're there in person -- white, yellow, pink, orange, purple, and even a little blue. It's like hiking the drop cloth underneath a water color easel.

From the fire wave section of the trail, I made my way over to the white domes trail, which I have to be honest, looked more yellow to me. # false advertising :)

But along the way I ran into this red, pink, and orange striped beauty.

And how many times have we seen orange and white rocks now? It feels like we should be getting sick of them by now, but I'm still not. I love this pic below because the rock has such a unique shape and the color variation is so fine and vivid. The stripes are horizontal while the angles of the rock are up and to the left. Even the little points along the top are fine and detailed. Love it.

More unique, finely detailed cut-outs along one of the slot canyons.

Petroglyph Canyon

And one last little spur to check out a series of petroglyphs carved into the cliffs along the canyon. It still amazes me how the shapes can be this vivid and recognizable after all these years.