Valley of Fire

Monday
Fantastic day today, exploring Valley of Fire State Park, about an hours drive north of Vegas. The nights are cool at this time of year in the desert, but the day time temperatures rise to the upper 60s, under blue skies and sunshine, perfect hiking weather! Valley of Fire derives it’s name from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of the dinosaurs, 150 million years ago. Subsequent uplifting and faulting of the region leads to the landscape we see today. Geography was one of my favourite subjects at school - I took it up to A-level - and I am still fascinated with how our landscapes are formed. We stopped to see the Beehives (top left), petrified logs, Arch Rock (bottom right), and the petroglyphs at Atlatl Rock (top right and center bottom), before continuing on to the White Domes area, where we ate our sandwiches, then did the White Domes hike, which features formations with brilliant contrasting colours and a slot canyon (bottom left). The remaining central photos of my collage were taken on the Firewave trail, I think my favourite trail, with its striking pink and white formations. By this time, it was mid afternoon, and the light was already beginning to go, as the sun fell below the mountains. As we crossed fro Utah to Nevada yesterday, we crossed from Moutain time into Pacific Time, so it gets dark so much earlier, and was totally dark by 5 pm. We stopped off at a couple more view points, Silica Dome and Rainbow Vista, then headed back to the city. Jen fixed us a tasty pasta dish for dinner and then we played a game of Boggle before turning in quite early.
Thankful today for
Blue skies and sunshine
Spectacular scenery
The wonders of God’s creation
Our competent daughter, and her planning, driving and cooking - I’m being spoiled!